The Stars in Her Eyes
by ERidg17
Summary: Her eyes are filled with stars, and she is a galaxy in a body.
1. Chapter 1

At first look, Calliope Souh is a small girl with sun-darkened skin wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt. Takashi glances at her, then down at Mitskuni's little blond head, then looks back up at her, and notices more. Like her eyes and her hair and her fingers.

Takashi is good at noticing things.

Like how her eyes seem brighter than the stars at night in the middle of nowhere - almost too bright for her face. He's heard and seen books and TV shows and the few magazines he reads say, 'this color will make your eyes pop!' but he thinks it may have something to do with how vibrant her eyes are, even against all the bright colors of the flowers.

And her fingers are heavily callused on the pads of each finger, from years of practicing an instrument - the violin, as he finds out. And as he notices later, she sometimes slips away into the delicate notes of a concerto, swaying back and forth to the melody she taps out on the tabletop.

And for another thing, he will eventually realize, she is big. She takes up the room with her energy, with her voice, just by standing there. Just by entering a room, everything seems brighter. He's never really understood it when people say _The room lights up when she walks in_ but he thinks it has something to do with the way everything seems to zoom into high-resolution the closer to her it gets, and the way that colors brighten and intensify around her.

But for now, all he knows is that she's the girl wearing the white shirt and the blue jeans and she has galaxies trapped under her skin and he sure that when she speaks they will come pouring out her mouth.

To him, Calliope Souh is a universe trapped in a human body.


	2. Chapter 2

The second time Calliope Souh sees her brother's friends, it's her first day of school and her fingers are numb and she's already out of breath. She's taken her meds like she does everyday but today they don't seem to be working as well as they usually do. Callie is feeling extremely out-of-place and stressed and scared and she does not want to be here at all.

But she's used to the dread and the fright and the feeling like she's drowning in thin air so Callie can suck it up relatively well. Almost well enough to fool even Tamaki, which is eventually her goal.

She's actually pretty proud of herself until Tamaki leads her over to the group of people who had shown up on the lawn last week. She had stuck around to say hi, listen to Tamaki rattle off a few names, then excused herself to go get something, then hadn't gone back. Callie wasn't particularly proud of that, but she knew what she could and couldn't handle and she couldn't handle meeting her brothers new BFFs so early in the morning before she had taken her medication.

Callie smiles politely, says hello to them again, mutters something about how it's really nice to meet them again, then falls silent again.

Between studying her shoes and glancing quickly up at each of their faces in turn, she gets an overall good look of them.

Two of them have dark brown or black hair, but one of them wears glasses and the other is extremely tall and broad-shouldered. But they both have grey eyes, though the one with the glasses has darker, flatter grey eyes that the other, whose eyes are almost silver.

There are two identical twins with nearly identical hair cuts, except one parts to the right and one parts to the left. And one has a button on his bag that the other doesn't. Their hair is bright red and their eyes are a strange yellow-green and she's thinking that they can't be fully Japanese. She's learned that in this school - in this entire culture of mansions and expensive jewelry and gardens filled with rare flowers, really - it's a sore spot. But that's about it. They both have the same expression of boredom on their faces, and they're standing on either side of a small, soft boy who couldn't be much taller than herself.

The boy's face is round and soft and adorable. His hair is a lighter brown and his eyes are the color of melted chocolate and she gets the sense he gives the best puppy-dog eyes in the history of the universe. He's small and soft in comparison to the others, who are all sharp corners and cold, dark folds of fabric, especially the one with the glasses, who gives Calli chills down her spine. They all reek of money and mansions and maids and butlers, but something of the boy - who she thinks is Haruhi Fujioka who Tamaki totally has a crush on even if he won't admit it - reminds her of home-cooked meals and warm, soft blankets.

The only other blonde is absolutely tiny and adorable and he's carrying a small stuffed rabbit. His eyes are a darker brown, and something about him is so sickeningly sweet Callie feels like she's supposed to have a toothache just from looking at him. He's overshadowed protectively by the tall, dark-haired one in a way that makes her think they're related.

He catches her glancing at him and meets her gaze levelly, calmly. Callie immediately drops her eyes to her feet, blushing intensely and clenching her jaw shut. Suddenly the stuffy hallways seems much hotter than it did a second ago. Somebody drops something, a binder or a box, and it echoes loudly in the clustered hallway, making her flinch and her hands tighten into fists.

Her heart starts pounding and her breathing speeds up. Tamaki is the only one standing close enough to hear it and he rests a hand inside her elbow, rubbing his thumb against the inside of her arm, discreetly checking her pulse.

He finds it and counts it and he brushes a hand down her arm to grab her hand and Tamaki curls Callie's fingers into his palm to warm them.

"I'm going to show Callie our classroom. We'll see you at lunch." He excuses them, and the one with the glasses nods sharply at them. Callie thinks his name is either Kyouya or Takashi.

The twins, who she knows for sure are Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin, scoff and turn away, but the boy who she thinks is Haruhi Fujioka with the light brown hair smiles gently and elbows the twins harshly.

Tamaki leads her into an empty classroom, and sits her at a desk where her back is to the wall and she's facing the doorway so she can see when people walk in.

Callie scratches at the desktop, trying to relieve the numbness in her fingers.

"_Did you take your medication today?_" He asks, sounding tired and exhausted and the guilt gnaws at her because she knows it's from when he stayed up late with her last night when she couldn't breathe.

"_Of course, Tamaki._" Callie snaps at him. "_I always do and you know that._"

Tamaki presses his lips together and sighs harshly. "_I do know that, but you've been here for ten minutes and you're already struggling. You don't have to do this today. We can do it next week, or even the week after that. Papa won't mind. You know you can't stress out your heart like that."_

Callie glares at him, rolling her eyes in irritation. "_Then when would I come back to start school, Tamaki? What if we kept pushing it back and pushing it back and pushing it back? How long until eventually it turned into me being homeschooled because of something I have under control?_"

"_But your heart-_"

"_Is fine. I'll let you know if I need you, okay?_" Callie reaches out and ruffles his hair. Tamaki glares at her from underneath the hair that has flopped into his eyes. "_You can't keep worrying about me._"

The first student files into the room, chatting over her shoulder in rapid-fire Japanese with her friend. Callie can only understand about half the words she's saying, and even then, it takes her a few moments to translate to French.

"_Fine._" Tamaki huffs, standing and waving energetically as the boy she thinks is Kyouya or Takashi/Mori - she gets confused when Tamaki talks about Takashi/Mori because he uses two different names almost interchangeably - enters the room. "_But this isn't done._" He grumbles under his breath at her before shouting, "Kyouya! Mon ami! Over here!"

And with an annoyed huff and sigh Kyouya slides into the seat next to him, diagonal from her, completely ignoring Calli besides a small nod aimed in her direction. Tamaki starts to chatter rapidly at him in Japanese. He's talking almost to fast for her to keep up, but she gets the jist that he's talking about his club and their meeting afterschool. It gives her chills just to think about it.

Students continue to file in, and she determinedly ignores them. For once, she's not worried if this is somebody else's seat, because Tamaki wouldn't have led her to an occupied seat.

Voices swell around them, and Callie clenches her hands into fists underneath the desk and focuses on her breathing and trying to make it normal as possible. People here will tear her apart, Tamaki had explained, if she gives them the chance and the reason.

And she reckons they already have a reason; she's Tamaki Souh's twin sister, daughter of that French woman the chairman hooked up with when he was married and in France. These girls and boys will tear into her like fresh meat given to wild dogs, Callie knows, it's always the same at every school.

So she'll will be the twin sister with the dirty blood and the weird scar and the weak heart and the bad circulation and she can be shy and that's fine, that's somewhat acceptable.

But she will not be the twin sister with social anxiety and a major heart disease that's also killing her who's easy prey for these vultures.

"_Okay, Callie?_" Tamaki double checks, no doubt faintly noticing her hands have stopped shaking and she's raised her head.

Callie smiles grimly at him, the chatter she can decipher strengthening her resolve. "_I'm good._"

* * *

The rest of class leading up to lunch is spent pretending she can't understand anything anybody is whispering about her. It's nothing too cruel yet, nothing she hasn't heard before. She's pretty easy going in the first place, so it doesn't really bother her yet. She's kinda looking forward to when they realize she can understand about 3/4th of what they're saying and has a vague grasp on what the other fourth is.

The nice thing about having no idea how the lunch line works is that temporarily, Tamaki will buy her lunch for her until she gets in the groove of things. Everything is exotic sounding and Callie's 85% sure that Tamaki ordered her the most familiar food he could. But he of course denies it so she stops nudging him with her elbow.

Kyouya is seated across from them, reading a book while his food sits untouched. Callie doesn't really think far enough ahead to assume Tamaki's other friends will be sitting with them until they're all actually sitting down.

The twins actually make a conscious effort to ignore her, and though it stings - even though she doesn't really know them at all - she finds it amusing.

The brown-haired boy - who she's 100% sure now is indeed, in fact, Haruhi Fujioka - smiles gently at her. "How was your class?"

It takes her a few seconds to properly think of a response, because while she's staring at the table and avoiding eye contact again - they're all sitting in a corner near the window, so she's feeling pretty okay so far - she's distracted by Takashi/Mori sitting next to her. "It was good. Thank you."

"Aww, she still has an accent!" The twins chorus, which is by far the weirdest thing she's ever heard. "How cute!" They're mocking her, Callie can tell. She doesn't really think they're doing it on purpose, because when she does quickly glance up at them, she doesn't see any malice on their faces. It seems more like a reflex, like how she stands with her back to the wall.

So Callie smiles down at the table and laughs with them. "It is funny, yes?"

Even Tamaki chuckles at this, at how awkward her words are put together. But she hasn't learned how to speak like Tamaki does yet.

The little blonde - his name is the hardest name she's ever even heard of, but also she's used to a different type of name, a different style, but still Callie's embarrassed that she's unsure about his name - swings his legs like a small child and asks in a cute little voice that fits his persona, "Callie-chan - " She thinks this is similar to a nickname because she's heard it tossed around today already - " - What's the scar on your chest from? I saw it last week before you went inside."

Haruhi frowns and glances at her apologetically. "Hani-senpai, that's rude to ask." He chides him. Hani-senpai pouts and folds his arms.

"It's okay. I don't mind." Callie tells Haruhi, glancing up at his face and then fixing her eyes on his hair. "Thank you though. That was nice of you."

Tamaki cocks his head to the side and watches her. She meets his eye and smiles, then leans around Takashi/Mori to get a better look at Hani-senpai, glancing at his stuffed rabbit. "I had heart surgery when I was fourteen. That is what the scar is left from."

Haruhi leans closer and asks, "What did you have the surgery for?"

Tamaki answers for her, since she doesn't know the word for _pacemaker_. And then he continues talking in words she can kind of understand, getting louder and louder. But he's grinning widely and almost bouncing in his chair so Callie isn't concerned that he's yelling at her.

Haruhi rolls his eyes affectionately, and asks her if he's always like this. Callie just shakes her head, still looking at his hairline.

Hani-senpai grins widely at her and responds enthusiastically to Tamaki's explanation. "I'm glad you're okay, Callie-chan!"

Callie smiles at him and averts her eyes to the table. "Thank you."

It falls into an awkward silence - for her, at least. Everybody else is eating quietly, even Tamaki. But Callie still feels sick to her stomach with nerves and she's never really been able to eat in front of other people anyways so she sits there quietly, propping her head up in the palm of her hand and letting her hair fall over her shoulders and swing forward to cover her face.

Suddenly Haruhi clears his throat from in front of her and asks, "Do you have a dog like Tamaki-senpai, Callie-senpai?"

Callie has no idea what the Senpai means either, and she's adds it to her list of things to ask Tamaki later. "No, only Tamaki has a dog. There were only two left."

"Do you want a dog?"

"We share Antoinette." Tamaki butts in eagerly, almost bouncing in his seat. "Callie hates big dogs, they scare her." He pats her on the head, a bit too roughly, patronizing her.

Callie looks at him, wide-eyed and irritated. He was never like this at home, always quiet and kind and he minded his own business. Their mom taught him better than this.

"_Tamaki-_" She starts to hiss quietly under her breath, but is cut over by Haruhi.

"That'd be really interesting to know, Tamaki-senpai, if I was _talking to you._" He hisses at Tamaki, eyes sharp as knives. Tamaki turns red and slouches in his seat. This just strengthens her suspicion that Tamaki actually does have a huge crush on Haruhi because he never listens when people tell him to shut up.

Callie grins at Haruhi, looking at his nose instead of his eyes, and laughs with him and the twins. Hikaru and Kaoru immediately start teasing him, calling him 'Boss' and something about mushrooms. She sits there watching them for a moment, still smiling and the twins seem to think she's smiling at them because they look at each other and then back at her and grin. It looks like the Grinch's grin copied twice.

"Do you mind if I sit next to you?" Haruhi asks her kindly, already half-standing and holding his lunch.

Callie looks up at him and shakes her head, pulling out the chair next to her, the one in between her and Takashi/Mori. Tamaki pats her on the back, gently this time, and rests his arm on the back of her chair. Her fingers are numb again and she sits on them.

The rest of lunch is quiet.

* * *

"_Are you going to be okay coming?_" Tamaki asks her after class, rubbing warmth into her hands. "_You can wait in the library._"

But she can't, because she doesn't know how it works. She doesn't know how the system works, she doesn't know where the seats are, she doesn't know if there are specific places for people to sit or what and since she doesn't know that she can't go. Calli likes to know how things work before she does them.

"_No, I can go with you. Is there a back room or something I can wait in_?"

Tamaki and Callie walk down the nearly deserted hallways, having waited for them to clear out a bit before leaving their classroom. "Of course there is. Just don't eat things out of the kitchen, Kyouya might actually kill you if Hani-senpai doesn't get there first."

Calli frowns and leans up on her tip toes to ask him quietly, "_What does that mean? Senpai?_"

"_It's an honorific for somebody older than you. If they're a lot older, than you add San at the end. Or if you don't know them that well._" He explained. "_And Kun is for a younger boy you're friends with. And Chan is generally reserved for younger girls or close friends. And you always have to use an honorific when you're talking to somebody unless you're really good friends with them. It's a sign of respect, and its offensive to not use one._"

She frowns as they passed the first music room, the high notes from a flute echoing in the empty hall. "_So Kyouya is -_ "

"_Kyouya-senpai, unless you guys get close like we are._" His chest puffs out with pride and Callie grins up at him.

"_And Haruhi is Haruhi-san, right?" _Tamaki seems to think for a second before answering slowly,

"_I don't think he'd mind if you called him Haruhi-kun._"

Callie shakes her head. "_I don't want to assume anything._" They can hear the chattering of teenage girls before they even round the corner, and then there's screaming and shouting and a rush of yellow coming towards them and Callie only has time to grab onto Tamaki's wrist and pull herself closer to him before they're surrounding him.

She had noticed that there would always be a sudden rush of whispers when any of Tamaki's friends and club members, especially Tamaki himself, would pass. But this - this is wild.

None of them actually touch either of them, but they're screaming and squealing, and they aren't exactly moving out of the way. Tamaki moves so his arm is around her shoulders as she tenses. Yelling always makes her nervous.

Tamaki navigates through the swarm with ease, greeting different girls and touching shoulders and cheeks, tucking hair behind ears, kissing hands. Callie tries to pull him faster, because today was not her day and she's 85% sure she will have a panic attack if she isn't away from this ridiculous swarm of girls.

She gets it. Tamaki is handsome. But maybe just because she's his sister, but she can't really see the appeal. Yes, he's handsome and sweet and loyal. Yes, he's polite and he can play the piano and he's gentle. But he's also needy and arrogant and eager to insert himself into conversations that have nothing to do with him. He's emotional and quick to jump to conclusions and doesn't think before he acts.

Callie isn't that much better than him, and she doesn't pretend to be. She loves her brother and would do most anything for him, but she still doesn't see why he's regarded as the highest in the high school hierarchy.

They reach the double doors and Callie shoves her way inside, leaving Tamaki behind. Haruhi-san looks up as she slides against the wall, away from the open door.

"Are you okay?" He asks kindly. Callie nods at her shoes and jerks her head at the doors, where Tamaki has just slipped through.

"Is it always like this?" She asks quietly. "So loud and noisy?"

Haruhi smiles at her, and tilts his head to the side endearingly. "Usually it's a bit calmer, but since it's a Monday, they're a bit more chaotic than usual. Don't worry, they should calm down." He sets the tea set he'd been holding down at the table. "Would you like some tea? It's a new shipment that came in over the weekend. According to Hikaru and Kaoru, it's supposed to be really good."

Callie shakes her head nervously, unsure whether it was rude to decline or polite to not make him do any more work. "That's okay, thank you

"Do you want to sit in the kitchen? There's a table in there that you can sit at and start your homework, if you want. And I'm sure Hani-senpai won't mind if you had some cake while you're in there."

Callie glances at Tamaki, who nods at her encouragingly before turning away to shut the door securely. She nods shyly at Haruhi, who smiles at her and gestures for her to follow him.

The kitchen is as big as her classroom, and the gear is shining, like it's brand new, never used equipment. A sturdy wooden table is set up in the middle, desserts set up on trays on one end. Calli sits at the other.

Haruhi putters around the kitchen for a few moments as Callie gets set up, shoving heavy textbooks onto the table top. He sets a cup of tea at the edge of the table, along with a small pitcher of milk and sugar.

"I know you said you didn't want any tea, but I find it helps after school. Do you mind if I sit with you before the club starts?"

Callie nods and smiles at him, pushing a book aside to clear a place for him. He sits quietly, his delicate teacup cupped in his hands.

Haruhi looks at her several times over the course of the next few minutes, and she can almost feel the questions burning in the back of his throat. But he remains silent, until Hani-senpai pokes his head in to inform Haruhi that they're about to open the doors.

Haruhi stands up, taking his teacup with him. He clears his throat awkwardly. "My dad has anxiety too." Callie's head jerks up, nearly hitting Haruhi in the cheek. He steps back, meeting her eyes. "If you ever need help with anything at all, please let me know. I don't have to help my dad that much anymore, since his medicine is working really well, but I remember how he would get when he was having an anxiety attack. And I know how hard it is to start something new. You're very brave for doing this, but understand you don't have to do it alone. I know you have Tamaki, but honestly, that idiot can't see anything unless somebody points it out to him."

He says this with an affectionate air, and Callie starts to think that maybe Tamaki's crush isn't unrequited.

Haruhi laughs self-deprecatingly, and continues, "Sorry, this is probably overstepping a boundary, but I just want you to know that I understand, and you can always ask me for help."

It takes a few seconds for her to respond. "Thank you. That's very kind." Calli whispers, meeting his eyes fully for the first time. Haruhi smiles at her, then turns away and exits the room.

The door swings slowly shut, in time for her to see them taking their places in front of the door.

* * *

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**Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!**

**Until next time, mina!**


	3. Chapter 3

Maybe it's because he's been raised to protect himself and those around him from the men who drip darkness, but Takashi finds the extensive security surrounding Ouran Academy unnecessary. There are tall, broad-shouldered men with red twisting around their fingers in dark, tiny streams posted at the front gates of the school, with guns and Tasers holstered on their hips. Security cameras are screwed into the ceiling in the hallways and on the outside walls, and some students even have personal bodyguards following them, waiting for them outside classrooms.

He doesn't find it similar to the way he watches out for Mitskuni, because Mitskuni can take care of himself. Even Takashi himself is outmatched by his cousin. Mitskuni seems to dance instead of fighting, pink streaming behind him, leaving stains across every surface.

He watches out for Mitskuni because that's what he's been raised to do, what he has been doing since they were both children. But he would do it anyways, because Mitskuni is his family and there is nothing more important than family.

But he can understand that not everybody is able to protect themselves as well as he and Mitskuni can, and that makes the security necessary. After all, this is a high school filled with the children of the most influential and richest families in Japan, and even China, for some. Obviously there are many targets in this school for many different reasons. His classmates aren't fazed by it, having grown up being surrounded by security and cameras and having every move of theirs watched.

He finds Calliope's reaction to the security amusing. Obviously she has never been immersed in this environment, has never been scrutinized so closely or protected so carefully. It must be strange for her, he muses, to be dumped in this environment and an entirely new culture and having to acclimate to it.

Takashi notices that she doesn't really eat during lunch. It seems to stem more from the fact that she is unused to the type of food and the sheer amount of people who watch her out of the corner of their eyes even after a week of attending school here. Calliope also doesn't meet anyone's eyes, though they constantly are moving, flickering from his shoulders to the tablecloth to the window and to Haruhi's hair. Instead, she shakes out dark blue from her fingers as they tap on the table.

When she sees the cameras in the lunchroom for the first time, it's only her third day here and she is carefully avoiding Tamaki's eyes after she ate the rest of his dessert. Calliope glances at the corner of the ceiling, glances down at the table cloth, then glances back up.

He doesn't really start to pay attention to her until she twists around in her seat to look above and behind her. She is a kaleidoscope of color and movement, and if he had the time, he would like to paint her with rainbows behind her skin and cobalt blue in her veins. He recognized that for her, that seemed to be an odd movement for a girl who seemed to shy away from drawing even the least bit amount of attention to herself, though it is in vain.

Calliope stares behind her for several seconds. Takashi watches the back of her head curiously, waiting for something that would explain her actions. Her hair curls down her back, twisting over her shoulders and pooling on the table in streams of gold and puddles of starlight. Calliope glances back over her shoulder, and Takashi follows her gaze to the camera directed into the lunchroom.

When Calliope twists back around, she sees him watching her and meets his eyes for a second at most before she drops her eyes back to the table cloth.

Takashi knew they were the same color as Tamaki's - they are twins, after all - but he was expecting a bright, jewel like tone of violet. But her eyes are darker, with less violet and more blue. While Tamaki's eyes jump out at you, and girls are instantly captivated by them, Calliope's are more of a dark, seductive color. They are pools of the darkest, richest violet. Unlike her hair, which is clear and honest, her eyes are the night sky and all the stars.

She doesn't seem to notice the guards themselves until later in the week, when she and Tamaki are walking to the club room and she accidentally runs into one of the personal security entourages.

Her blush is crimson and her words are white. Calliope stutters and mumbles and twists her fingers but the man doesn't even give her a second look past his initial assessment and continues down the hallway.

After that, she watches them as they pass by, seeming to analyze them with those dark eyes of hers.

Takashi begins to think that Calliope is different than how Tamaki described her. He didn't even mention the colors that follow her every movement, like a camera blur.

* * *

Calliope does not understand why Takashi/Mori watches her. It's not like he's being creepy about it - she's realized his blank face is the norm for him by now - but surely there's more interesting things to look at then her.

Fifty percent of the time she even _remotely_ glances at his face it is blank and he is looking at her. She doesn't know if she subconsciously detects his gaze and then subsequently turns to check if he is actually watching her - which he usually is when she looks, but she doesn't actually look that often - or if he's being weird and watches her all the time.

She had initially thought they were the same strange shade as Kyouya-senpai's, the same silver. But Takashi/Mori's eyes are lighter, the color of silver silk. They stand out against his dark hair and skin. They're slightly unsettling, but it fits the rest of his appearance - his extreme height, his aversion to talking (unlike her, it doesn't seem to stem from anxiety), his 'Wild Type' club persona.

She becomes more aware of him after that.

Like how he always watches over Hani-senpai - who she knows now is his cousin - and is always hovering near him. He always seems ready to move.

And she swears she hears him huff out a laugh when she accidentally bumps into the security that appears to be tailing a classmate of hers and starts stuttering and apologizing. But other than that, he seems to have a continuously blank expression.

He seems nice enough, though. They all do, as a matter of fact. She's still unsure about Kyouya-senpai and the twins, and whether it's because she's an outsider that they ignore her or if they just ignore everybody. The only person they pay attention to is Haruhi-san, which makes her think that he's done something that deserves great respect. From what Calli's seen, keeping the twins under control might be that great act of bravery.

And for another thing, they're all handsome. The kind of handsome that makes movie stars famous. The kind that makes girls stare in the hallway and is portrayed in books as being breath-takingly gorgeous.

The Host Club has it's own scale, and Tamaki is on top. Hani-senpai is at the bottom, being merely cute instead of dazzling. Haruhi-san falls right above Hani-senpai, the twins above them - Kaoru-San first, Hikaru-San second - and Takashi/Mori behind Tamaki. Kyouya-senpai isn't even on the scale.

Calliope only knows all of this because it's posted on the inside of every girls' bathroom door throughout the school, along with bets and posters also concerning the Hosts.

She thinks its brilliant. Not that they're selling photo shopped pictures of her brother, obviously, but that they put everything that they want to keep hidden from the Hosts in a place they can't get into. Probably the only one.

By now, a routine has developed. Tamaki and her will walk to their club room, and Haruhi-san will already be in the back room making tea for the guests, humming quietly to himself. He'll have set a cup aside for her, and when she walks in, making sure to let the door swing completely shut behind her, he'll look up and grin and greet her so sweetly it feels like she should have a cavity.

Today is no different. She walks in and Haruhi-san smiles gently at her, reaching for her cup of tea and holding it out for Callie to grab. "How was the walk today? Did the girls calm down any?"

"A bit." Callie admits, sliding her bag onto the table top. "They weren't as loud as they were at first, I suppose."

Haruhi-san hums in agreement. "They're used to you now. Since you're never out during Hosting hours, they don't see you as a threat." He slides the sugar in front of her, picking up a tray simultaneously. "It's a good thing, Calliope-senpai."

"Are you sure, though?" She asks quietly, turning the teacup in her hands. "It's unlikely that they'll suddenly want to be friends."

Haruhi-san pauses from the doorway. "Well, you have to give them that chance." He says quietly. He still makes a conscious effort not to speak too loudly or suddenly around her. "Some of the girls are really sweet and haven't talked to you because they haven't seen much of you. A lot of them ask about you."

Callie scratches the tabletop. "I can try." She says finally, and Haruhi-san smiles happily at her before he pushes out the door.

The door doesn't even have time to swing shut before Kyouya-senpai steps inside, carrying a thin, black notebook. He glances up at her as he walks in, nods briefly, and makes a small note.

Callie watches him out of the corner of her eyes as she pulls out her textbooks and stacks them up at the edge of the table. He walks around the kitchen, opening cupboards and looking in the pantry, taking note of everything inside. Occasionally he'll look over and she'll drop her eyes to his feet but all he does is nod politely at her and resume his activities.

She eventually starts her homework, even while he is in the room. It's easy to forget he's there after a while, though every time she hears a cabinet open, she still looks up at him.

And then suddenly Kyouya-senpai is standing next to her, close enough to grab her attention but far enough that Callie doesn't feel crowded. "I trust that you are settling in well?"

Callie crosses her legs as she turns to face him, twisting her pencil in her fingers. "Yes, thank you. That's very kind of you to ask."

Kyouya-senpai hums in agreement as he writes something else down in his notebook. "Consider it my business to check in with our highest earning host's sister. I don't want to make it appear as if the Host Club is inconsiderate to the relatives of the Hosts."

Calliope squints curiously at him, but he ignores her and continues to scribble in his notebook. Finally, he snaps it shut and pushes his glasses further up his nose.

Kyouya-senpai smiles politely at her, but there is something distinctly cold and condescending in the gesture. "Please let me know if you require anything else, Souh-san. But please refrain from eating any of the cakes; Hani-senpai requires a certain number of them to remain in a good mood."

"Of course. I'm not fond of strawberry icing, in any case."

It's odd to be called Souh-san - she had always used Grantaine as her last name all throughout school in France, but here, while in Japan and attending Ouran, last names and what families they're tied to was everything. "Will you please call me Calliope or Callie? My father is Souh-san, not me."

Several seconds pass in silence as he considers her. Then, he asks without any verbiage, "Why do you not call Tamaki_ René_? I understand that is what you called him back in France."

Callie considers him in return. He doesn't mumble, and he has a way of speaking that simultaneously sets her on edge, nervous for his next word - she feels like he could ruin everything for anybody with one word - and puts her at ease, oddly. "He asked me to call him Tamaki. When we speak in French, I call him Tamaki so I don't get confused and call him René in Japanese. He wanted to start over here."

Unlike Takashi/Mori's eyes, which are reassuring and warm and kind, his eyes are cold and sharp and cut away at nonsense. "But then you being here is a direct contradiction, isn't it? You are a part of his old life, and here you are, in his new life."

Her throat tightens at the implication, and she is silent for a few more minutes. "I'm his sister. Of course I'm here." She says quietly, meeting his eyes full on.

Kyouya-senpai is quiet, watching and taking her reaction into account. Then he smiles politely, and bows slightly to her. The light reflects off his glasses. "Of course, Calliope-San. Enjoy your tea." With a final nod, he pushes out the door and lets it swing gently shut.

* * *

Tamaki is slow in telling her that they can go home, so Callie tentatively pushes the door open to see what's going on.

Tamaki is blushing violently, and the twins are laughing. Haruhi-san is grinning at them, and even Kyouya-senpai is smiling slightly at them as Tamaki starts to yell in rapid-fire Japanese at the twins. Hani-senpai is giggling too, and suddenly Callie feels entirely left out and out of place.

But this may be the only time she's actually a little pleased at being left out, because it means that A) Tamaki, for once, isn't worried about her and B) he has made friends that can make him smile and loosen up. Yes, she does feel left out - especially because they're twins and they'd always shared friends before so this was a slightly new feeling - but she's wiling to put up with it. She can make friends on her own if she really tries.

So she hikes her bag over her shoulder and pushes out the door, motioning to Tamaki that she'll be in the limo whenever he's done.

She's only a little upset that he comes down 20 minutes later, trailing slowly to the car with his friends. He slides in, still shouting at the twins and Haruhi simply walks off down the street, good-naturedly ignoring the twins calling after her.

Tamaki grins widely at her. "_Sorry, the twins were arguing again_."

Calliope smiles back. "_It's okay. But do you mind me staying around you and your friends?"_

Tamaki regards her for several moments, studying her intently. Even sitting across from one another, they are touching; her foot rests on his and his knee knocks against hers. _"Of course I don't mind."_ He finally speaks. He's quiet and firm. _"I never mind, Calliope."_

Callie smiles at him and hums happily. _"I know, René."_

* * *

**This was a bit faster, right? Not even a month has passed! I'm pretty proud of myself.**

**While on the subject of Takashi PoV, I've always imagined him to be a photographer and an artist, even if he doesn't spend all his time with those hobbies. So when he describes the colors and how things appear to him, they will often be metaphors, and extreme hyperboles. So it's not actually like that, but its how he views it.**

**Thanks you guys again! Let me know what you think about this one.**

**Until next time, Mina!**


	4. Chapter 4

Normal text - Japanese

_Italics - French_

* * *

Callie is busy distracting herself with doodling on her paper before class starts, halfheartedly listening to Kyouya-senpai and Tamaki talk - or argue, rather - about what to do about Kyouya-senpai's birthday next week. Personally, Callie is all for doing nothing, like Kyouya-senpai wants to do. After all, he is the birthday boy.

But she knows that Tamaki will win. Either Kyouya-senpai will tire of listening to him whine or Tamaki will win him over, like he always does.

"So you're Souh, Calliope, right?" Startled, Calli drops her pen and it rolls to the floor. She glances up at the other girl, who rolls her eyes at her.

"Yes." She smiles politely at the girl, who is very pretty and therefore, very intimidating. Her hair is black and glossy, held back from her face in an intricate braid. She smacks her gum loudly, making Callie wonder if she was raised in a barn or what.

After a few seconds of them staring at each other, the other girl raises her eyebrow in a casual move that emanates disapproval and contempt. Callie immediately cares nothing for what this girl thinks of her. She's already gotten adjusted to Ouran, and even Tamaki remarked the other day that she appeared more at ease.

Biting back her tongue, she asks politely, "And you are?"

She pauses from smacking her gum for a moment. "Hayashi, Rin." She rolls her eyes again and resumes chewing her gum. "So, you're Tamaki-kun's twin sister, right? Can you get us some of his baby pictures? Kyouya-kun won't put any in any of the magazines they publish."

Calliope stares at her for several seconds. "Uh. . . no? Why would I give you baby pictures of my brother?"

Hayashi-san rolls her eyes and scoffs. "Oh come on. Of course you can. You're his twin sister. What, do you want money for them or something?"

Callie shakes her head, and says to her, "No, thank you. I will not give you any pictures of any sort of my brother."

Hayashi-san scoffs loudly and says flippantly, "Well, you're not good for anything, are you?" before sliding out of the chair and going back to her seat.

Tamaki, having heard only the last sentence of their conversation, looks up in alarm at her. "What was that?"

"_It was nothing, Tamaki. Don't worry about it_." Tamaki glares at her and grips the edge of the desk.

"_I want to know what that girl said to you, please_." Tamaki stresses the _please_ through gritted teeth, ignoring how some of the others around him are tittering at his 'unusual display of anger'.

Callie grins at him. "_She wanted some of your baby pictures. Do you think I should give her the one where you got into the flour, or the one where you're bathing in the sink? Personally, I'm torn_." She wants to laugh as he rolls his eyes at her.

Tamaki scowls and shifts in his seat so he can lean closer to her. "_Tell me if Hayashi-san bothers you again. People should know they can't mess with you_."

Callie scoffs at him, leaning back in her seat. "_Sure. What are you going to do? Flirt with her until she faints?_" Tamaki makes a face at her as the teacher enters the room.

"_I might. You don't know_." He's smiling now, at the absurdity of it all. "_Maybe I'll even kiss her. She is very pretty_."

"_Her heart might give out. Besides, would you cheat on Haruhi-san like that?"_ She hums slyly. Tamaki shoots up in his seat, glaring at her.

"_**Excuse me -**_ "

"Souh-san, please calm down. You are interrupting my lecture." Their teacher admonishes him sternly, making Tamaki go red and slide down in his seat.

Callie grins at him. Knowing she's watching, he makes a face at the back of Kyouya-senpai's head, and when the teacher's back is turned, Kyouya-senpai turns around and glares at him.

* * *

Callie trudges into the kitchen to find Haruhi-san up to his elbows in flour, his nice uniform jacket over the back of her chair. His sleeves are rolled up past his elbows.

He glances over his shoulder when she walks in, grinning brightly at her. "Hey, would you like to help us bake? We always try to do it every once in a while for our guests."

Callie smiles back at him, dumping her backpack on her chair and pulling a hair tie off her wrist. "Is it okay if I do? I don't want to mess anything up."

Haruhi-san wipes his hands on a towel nearby. Her eyes are drawn to them, even though they look to be only a bit bigger than her own. Like the rest of him, they are small and pale and delicate, like trying to lift something too heavy would break them.

"Of course you're not going to mix anything up! We're going to help you." Callie's eyes slide to the countertops, noting two different work stations.

"We?" She asks, twisting her hair into a bun on her head.

"Mori-senpai will be here in a moment. When I leave to go host, he'll stay in here with you and help with whatever's left." Callie rethinks her bun and instead starts to braid her hair down her back.

"Okay." She says quietly. Haruhi-san takes a closer look at how her eyes have reverted to their standard position at his feet.

"Is that okay? I can always stay in here with you instead of him helping." He offers.

She ties off her braid and rolls up her sleeves. "No, its okay." She can do it. She immediately feels guilty for making Haruhi-san think he's done something wrong, but brushes it off.

Haruhi-san grins so brightly Callie feels like she is staring into the sun. "Okay. Let me know if you can't do it. It's not a big deal. You being comfortable and feeling unthreatened is more important then getting all of this done." He says firmly. "No matter what Kyouya-senpai may think."

Callie laughs as she picks up a bowl of flour and baking soda and starts mixing it together. "He seems okay, though. Tamaki likes him."

Haruhi-san hums in agreement. "He's fine when he's not trying to get something out of you. He's called the Devil King for a reason."

She sets the bowl on the counter. "You're joking?"

Haruhi-san chuckles and reaches for a measuring cup in the sink. "Sadly, no. He's just very cold and closed off. Once you get to know him better and understand him, he'll soften up."

The door creaks open behind them, and Callie glances over her shoulder to glimpse at Mori-senpai.

"Hello, Mori-senpai. Do you think you could show Calliope-senpai how to make this batch of cookies? I need to finish these." Haruhi-san means no harm, she's sure, but there's a glint in his eyes that doesn't seem quite innocent.

Mori-senpai crosses over to her and its the first time she realizes just how tall he really is. He's probably normal height, around 6 feet or above, but she's only 5'2" so everything is taller and more intimidating than her.

He's studying her with an intensity that makes her nervous. Not like he's judging her, but like he's evaluating her. Calliope blushes and turns her head away from him, picking up some bowls and carrying them to the sink.

When she turns back, Mori-senpai is leaning effortlessly on the counter, his jacket stripped off and draped carelessly over her backpack. His sleeves are rolled up to his elbows, and he seems to be waiting for her.

Callie stops at the sink and looks at him nervously, waiting for him to do or say something. After several seconds of silence between them - silence that Haruhi-san manages not to notice from where he's humming near the refrigerator - she raises an eyebrow at his cheek.

Without a word - she's slowly becoming accustomed to his silence, though it still makes her nervous - he steps back from the counter and relaxes, like he's trying to look as unthreatening as possible. Mori-senpai tilts his head to the side, patiently waiting for her to come closer before showing her the recipe that is taped to the cabinet.

"Do you want to help with one batch, or would you rather us do them separately?" He asks quietly. His voice is deep, like the deepest string on a cello. It twists around the kitchen, calming everything down - the humming of the refrigerator, the buzzing of the timer - and suddenly everything is quiet and even she feels more at ease.

She watches his hair for a second more, noting how it turned almost red when the light hit it, before asking, "Could you show me? I don't know the recipes."

So he shows her.

Mori-senpai is gentle with his touches. He gently rolls the dough flat and carefully mixes everything. His hands are delicately strong, and he is careful not to touch her, perhaps sensing that it might cause a panic attack.

Calliope isn't used to people being so quiet, or so patient. It's almost as if he goes out of his way to be this gentle, like he knows how he appears physically and wants to rebuke everything.

It's a nice change from Tamaki, who is gentle, but also loud and sudden. Mori-senpai is unassuming and moves slowly, so there aren't any sudden movements.

He's like classical music, dancing around the room and reflecting off everything, calming her heartbeat, her breathing, her shaking. Gradually she grows accustomed to him and his flowing movements. Calliope falls into a rhythm that's as easy for her as it is to close her eyes and play her mother's lullaby on her violin.

* * *

Takashi, by nature, is an extremely quiet person. He knows it's by nature, and not a side-effect of his training because Satoshi-kun is loud and exuberant, even though they've both received the same training.

Satoshi-kun is like a bundle of multi-coloured balloons, and Takashi is the weight that keeps him grounded.

Takashi is not very good at communication, in general. Not with words. But he's determined to break the silences that hangs like a heavy curtain in the room, dripping off his own shoulders and weighing on Calliope's hair.

"Where did you learn to bake?" He asks her quietly, sliding a pan into the oven as he deftly pulls another out. There are no hesitations in her movement as she mixes the batter or pulls out sheets of cookies and pans of cakes.

Calliope tenses, her small fingers pausing. "My mother taught Tamaki and I when we were young."

For some reason, Calliope is nervous around him, to the point of freezing when he speaks to her, then resuming with her fingers trembling slightly. Takashi has seen her interact with Haruhi-chan, and she's less nervous around her. He doesn't think she know's that Haruhi-chan is a girl, so it's not that she's more comfortable around her for that.

The guilt curdles in his stomach, making him sick. He's always hated that people were afraid of him before they even met him, because of his height or his dead expression. But this is different. She's almost defensive about it. It doesn't seems like she's afraid of his height or that he's going to attack her or something similar.

It's something in the way she avoids his eyes, how she wears her hair on the back of her neck like a shield of gold. He wants to put her at ease, so her hands go back to kneading love into the dough.

So he keeps talking, an action that feels so out of place for him that he has to force himself to keep talking. "Haruhi-kun had to teach me," Takashi admits to her, turning to face her. "He's been baking since he was young, and I'm not used to having people eat what I make. Mostly they just admire it."

He feels like Satoshi-kun, babbling on about everything, but they're alone, and she's so quiet and unassuming it's making him nervous. Now he knows what the others feel like.

But it's worth it when she dusts her hands off and turns to face him, though she doesn't quite meet his eyes. "What do you make that people admire?"

Takashi tries to meet her eyes, but Calliope is starting determinedly at the counter behind him. "I paint." It's an odd sensation to him, to reveal information about himself to her. "And I take pictures."

She's silent for several moments, but this silence is warm and pink and it floats up and around them, twisting Calliope's hair over her shoulder and looping around his fingers.

"Pictures of what?"

"Things I find beautiful." He tells her quietly, filing the empty room with his voice.

This makes Calliope smile a little and turn away towards the window. Her smile is red and warm and comforting and it also happens to be the same colour as his mother's.

"I play the violin." Calliope turns back to the batter that she abandoned. "Tamaki and I were taught to play a lot of different instruments, but he prefers the piano, and I prefer the violin."

Takashi watches her mold the dough into small balls, and he can see it. He can imagine her fingers dancing over strings and yellow pulsing out and intertwining with the music.

It's not until she glances up at him that he realizes how long he's been watching her. She's blushing crimson again, and yellow darkens to blue that hovers over her fingers like a shield.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to stare." He takes the tray of cookies from her and passes her a rag. She takes it with a quiet _thank you_ and leans against the counter. He can feel those starry eyes on him as he trades the tray and sets one to cool.

Calliope straightens at the same time he does, seeming to decide on something.

"If you're curious about something, just ask. You don't need to stare." She states boldly. It's all he can do not to stare at the star peeking out from underneath her hair.

It occurs to him she's talking about the scar on her chest. The one that's hidden by her dress but that he can remember from their first meeting.

He shakes his head as a reply, and she seems satisfied, turning back to the remaining batter.

They work in silence that is periodically broken by one of the actually saying something to the other. Most of the time, it's just a quick request to pass something or to _please come help me with this_. But other times, it's questions that actually mean something. He feels like he's discovering the depths of the universe slowly, through questions about France and Japan and siblings and birthdays. For some reason, these questions are charged with meaning when it come to Calliope.

And he was right when he assumed that the stars would flood out her mouth when she speaks, but instead of diminishing the number of them under her skin, they simply multiply and fill the air until the are working in a room with stars that float and drift between them.

The hum of conversation fades to a white noise behind them.

The dough on the trays is leaking red onto the wax paper, and slight trails of the palest pink are everywhere. The pale green his own fingers are leaving overlap with hers, and eventually when they settle into a comfortable silence and she takes to tapping her fingers on the counters the stars remain even then. Only when she walks out of the room with her bag do the stars start to disappear. He watches her leave out the pink double doors, stars trailing behind her, forming galaxies and constellations in her wake.

* * *

Takashi has an entire room dedicated to his paintings and drawings, and another dedicated to his photographs. It's not like there's any shortage of them in his house.

After training, he shuts himself up in his art room, determined to get the stars he saw hanging over Calliope's head right.

Already, there are canvases leaning against the room leaking sunlight and dark, damp air into the room. His brother's smile hides behind his mother's shoulder. His father's broad hand reaches out to them both.

He has portraits of all of them in here, stacked against one wall. Some he's given to them - he knows for a fact Tamaki has them hung in the main hallway of his house, and the twins have them on the wall between their rooms - and others he keeps.

He keeps the ones that he's painted of Kyouya with frozen fingers and a heart of fire, and the ones with the sun hovering in Tamaki's chest. He keeps the ones where Hikaru has red behind his eyes and purple in his hair and Kaoru has blood made of yellow sunshine. He keeps the ones where Mitskuni is painted with a lion roaring in his chest and flowers threaded through his hair, and the ones where Haruhi's blood is comprised of words and pale purple gentleness.

He sketches Calliope with stars over her head, with rainbows under her skin, with blurs following her every move. Takashi stays up until midnight drawing constellations that shimmer under golden blonde hair.

* * *

For Kyouya-senpai's birthday celebration, Tamaki won the argument, like Calliope thought he would. It's decided that it will just be a quick party instead of a hosting session after school later next week, a semi-formal event.

Kyouya-senpai hasn't said much to her since her first week - a Hello, Calliope-San here, a silent nod there - but still she feels a sense of comradeship with him. It's probably because he's the one who kept Tamaki grounded when he was here alone.

So she does get him a present, though it still makes her nervous to think about it. He might not like it, or think it's odd she's giving him a gift when she's known him for barely two weeks, but she feels like she's known them longer. Tamaki talks about them to her, listing things they like and don't like, what each of them likes to eat and how much sugar they like in their tea and what their favorite types of food is -

In the end, Calliope settles for a thick, warm scarf. It's dark blue and muted, so he might actually wear it. Kyouya-senpai seems unruffled by the increasingly cold temperatures that make it hard for her to breathe in the mornings, but she's seen the way he turns up the collar of his jacket when he's outside.

The maids are eager and excited to help her get dressed the afternoon of Kyouya-senpai's party, chattering on and on about how nice her dress is, how beautiful the color is, how nice her hair will look when it's done. Her heart races with all these people around her, but Callie can't figure out a way to tell them nicely to leave her alone so she just pretends that she has to be as still as possible.

Tonight, her hair is up and her makeup is done more elaborately than normal. The maids had tried to convince her to at least put a little concealer on the dark scar that marred the pale skin of her chest, but it doesn't matter. She would just sweat it off anyways.

Finally she's ready and all she has to do is wait for Tamaki to come waltzing down the stairs.

Callie's heart is still racing and her hands are shaking slightly so she sits on a couch in the entrance hall and turns up her music so loud she can barely hear herself think.

The lilting, classical music seems to give everything a slight dreamlike quality, distancing her just far enough away so her hands are no longer shaking and she can stand without feeling dizzy.

Sure enough, Tamaki comes waltzing down the stairs like a king lowering himself to talk to his subjects and Callie has to smile at him when he kisses her hand like he's escorting her to the finest ball.

"_Are you ready to go_?" He asks, like he was the one waiting for her.

Calliope rolls her eyes at him. "_I don't know, are you? It looks like you took longer one your hair than I did on mine."_

Tamaki reaches a hand up to play gently with the front of his hair. "_This take time, like all perfectly beautiful things._" He sighs, apparently pleased with himself.

Callie laughs at him, and turns to walk out the door. "_Is that why you're younger? You needed more time to be beautiful_?"

He makes an offended noise as he catches up to her as she reaches the limo. "_We're twins, Callie. It doesn't matter who's older_."

_"You're only saying that because you're younger_." She hums as she slides in, Tamaki following quickly behind her.

"_We're the same age!_"

* * *

So far, the party isn't as bad as she originally thought. They have good food and nice music and isolated tables, so she's satisfied. Callie'd feel better if her hair was down, but she sits with her back to the wall, so it's nearly as good.

Presents are piled high on a table against the far wall, some spilling over onto the floor. There are probably more presents on that one table than she's received in her lifetime. Callie's is somewhere in that mix, a scarf in a box wrapped in blue wrapping paper with tiny snowflakes.

She can see Haruhi-san make his way over to her, a glass of what looks like champagne in his hand. "Hello, Calliope-senpai. How are you?"

The pleasantries are a front, she can tell. "I'm fine, Haruhi-san. Please don't worry for me tonight. Go have fun and dance with the pretty girls." Callie grins at his slightly crooked tie. "I'm sure they're all desperate to dance with you."

Haruhi-san's eyes slide over to Tamaki for a split second, who is dancing with a girl in a pale peach dress. "You're probably right. But will you dance with me later on?"

Calliope settles back in her chair more comfortably. Could she dance with him? She'd like to melt into the music and dance until her feet were sore, but there are a lot of girls here who are already starting to glance at her chest and she can feel her lungs tightening slightly, ribbons winding around them. "Maybe."

Haruhi-san nods kindly at her, smiling gently. "Let me know. I'll send some food over to you."

And with that he's gone, easily swallowed up in a cloud of silk and curls.

Calliope sits there quietly, enjoying herself. She watches Hani-senpai whirl girls around in a dance that has no rhythm or balance, just the girl desperately holding on to his tiny hands. She watches Kyouya-senpai dance cordially with several different girls brave enough to ask him to dance. The twins have mastered the art of dancing with two girls, and switching halfway through. Tamaki is in high demand, as always.

She can see Mori-senpai's tall head of dark hair above all the others, and then the rest of his body materializes out of the storm of girls carrying a plate of food.

He holds it out to her as she shifts nervously in her seat. "Oh, thank you! I'm sorry, I didn't know Haruhi-san was serious when he said he'd send food over or I would've told him not to. I'm sorry."

Mori-senpai sits on the couch next to her, humming as he leans back. "It's fine."

Callie clamps down on her tongue, wanting to apologize again for making him bring her food like some sort of servant, but he's closed his eyes.

She stares at him as he sighs. His jaw is strong and square, and his hair is dark and thick and slightly wild. His skin is darker than, say, Haruhi-san's, but lighter than hers or Tamaki's. His eyelashes brush his cheeks when his eyes are closed, and she knows how beautiful his eyes are.

Calliope thinks it's his eyes that make him more than handsome or good-looking. His face would look nice on anybody else's body, but his eyes make him beautiful. He is the kind of person that people model Greek gods after.

Eventually she looks away, back at the party, and starts to pick at the food nervously.

Girls wander closer and closer to them until they're chatting right at the arm of the couch where Mori-senpai's head is tilted back. He doesn't appear to be asleep, but he doesn't move even when the girls start to whisper about him and how handsome he looks asleep. It gets to the point where they start to debate about taking pictures of him, and, as much as she doesn't want to disturb him, Callie reaches over to tentatively touch his shoulder.

He jolts awake. One hand grabs her wrist and another grabs her shoulder, like he's halfway between pulling her closer and holding her where she is. His hands are freezing.

His eyes meet hers, and his widen in what looks like horror before he releases her hand and shoulder.

The girls have stopped talking to watch.

"I-I'm sorry. They were going to take picture of you, and I didn't know if you were asleep or not." Now they're looking at her with disgust and fury and Callie's having difficulty swallowing. "I-I didn't mean to startle you. I'm sorry."

Mori-senpai doesn't say anything to her, simply staring at her. The girls scoff and click away in their high heels.

Neither of them move an inch even after they leave, eyes locked. Calliope starts to panic when she hears the conversations near them dissolve into whispers and derisive laughs that disrupts the music and warps it around her. Her hands start to shake and her feet begin to go numb. Her breathing picks up and her heart starts racing.

Then, abruptly, Mori-senpai relaxes and stands, holding out a hand to help her up off the couch. She stands, but doesn't take it, feeling her fingers going cold.

Still, he doesn't say a word, but guides her into the kitchen and makes sure the door closes behind them. Calliope sits in her chair and takes off her heels and puts her head in her hands.

She can hear Mori-senpai rummaging around in the cabinets as she tries to control her breathing. The music is loud again, and she times her breathing to the violin. Mori-senpai sets a cup of tea on the table next to her, and stands in front of her.

"Breathe through your nose." He instructs her gently, kneeling down so he's below her. "And you need to unclench your jaw, Calliope-San, or you're going to pass out."She hadn't even realized it, but she'd been clenching her jaw so tightly it's actually hurting her teeth. Callie forces her jaw to relax, and Mori-senpai takes the cup of tea and wraps her hands around it. "Keep breathing." He says gently, sitting back on his heels so she has space to breathe.

All she can hear is the music squeezing under the door and her own heartbeat in her ears. Mori-senpai makes himself comfortable on the floor in front of her, bowing his head and studying the ground, not wanting to leave her alone in case she actually did pass out, but also wanting to give her privacy to compose herself.

The sick feeling in her stomach ebbs away after a minute, and Callie starts sipping at the tea, though her heartbeat is still slightly erratic.

Eventually, she sighs and shifts in her seat. "Thank you." She says quietly, voice barely above a whisper. "I'm sorry. I . . . I didn't mean to freak out. It's just really hard for me sometimes, to have everybody talking about me."

"And it makes you sick?" Mori-senpai asks, raising his head to look at her. Callie drops her eyes to her knees.

"Yeah. Sometimes." She feels like he's waiting for more, so she adds, "It's called social anxiety."

"Does this happen a lot?"

She shrugs and gets up to put her teacup in the sink. "It depends on what I'm doing and who I'm with."

Mori-senpai gets up and follows her, standing behind her as she turns to face him. "Who else knows?"

Calli crosses her arms and leans against the counter. "Tamaki, of course, and Haruhi-san."

Mori-senpai regards her gently for a moment. She's staring at his shoes.

"I'm sorry this happens to you." Callie's head jerks up to watch him. For the first time she's seen, empathy warms the sharp planes of his face. "If I can, I'll help so you don't feel sick. If that's okay."

She watches him silently for a few more seconds, then nods and whispers, "Thank you."

* * *

Takashi didn't know people could get sick from people talking about them, but from what he's seen, it's extremely dangerous. Calliope could've passed out earlier. It worries him.

But at the moment, she's radiating yellow so he's not concerned about her health at the moment. He could've sworn her breathing nearly stopped earlier.

He looks up at her again, outlined against the setting sun and stares in wonder.

She doesn't notice him looking at her - Calliope is staring at the ground again, humming to the music - and he's glad because there is no explaining this to her.

The closet comparison Takashi can think of in that second she doesn't notice him watching her is an angel because there is no way she is of Earth. Calliope is too kind and warm and soft and _here_ to be an angel though, so even that is a poor comparison.

Her hair is up for the party - the first time he's ever seen it up - but little strands have escaped and the little strands of gold stick to her forehead and neck.

The sun streaming in the window outlines her hair and gives her a glow that has nothing to do with his own artistic tendencies.

Calliope is so beautiful in that moment that it makes his chest ache. He's experienced similar feelings with the others - when Tamaki is uncontrollably excited and spilling yellow and orange from his mouth in tidal waves or Haruhi is reading a book with floating words in dark purple ink or Mitskuni makes his friends laugh - and it stems from the pleasure of seeing them happy, he thinks. And right now, he is happy that Calliope is trusting him with her and that she isn't shying away from him.

Calliope is always beautiful - Takashi has no issues admitting the beauty in others, and he thinks the same about his friends and several of his guests - but something in this moment in particular makes her more than physically attractive. It ties her together.

She looks up a second later and meets his eyes. The words leave his mouth before he can consider them, consider what they might mean to her.

"May I take your picture?" He breathes quietly, but he knows she heard him because she stares.

She meets his eyes and blue is painted down her cheeks in streams. And she nods nervously.

He doesn't have his camera but he does have his phone, though it's a poor substitution. Calliope makes as if to pose. Takashi reaches out to still her, "No, please don't move." So she freezes.

She's stiff and frozen in place, like a move will crack her foundation.

Takashi smiles at her, to get her to relax. Calliope smiles back, some of her tension releasing in the movement that explodes with color, fanning out behind her.

_Snap!_

* * *

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**Until next time, Minna!**


	5. Chapter 5

_"How would you like to come to a spa resort later this week?_" Tamaki asks suddenly on the way to school. Callie looks up from her book, placing her thumb on her page and shutting it.

"_A spa resort?_" She says dubiously, raising an eyebrow at him.

"_Well, more like a pool, really_." He rushes to explain. "_Kyouya's family owns it, and since it isn't open to the public yet, we've been invited to take a one-day trip to test it out!_"

Calliope remains silent, and Tamaki does as well, meeting her eyes and staring back at her.

Callie sighs and cracks her book open again. "_Is it just the Host Club invited, or all of your guests as well_?" She asks nervously, already tapping her fingers on her knee. Tamaki picks up on it, and reaches out to pat her knee reassuringly.

"_Just the Host Club. Nobody else is invited_."

They pull up to the school drop-off zone. Tamaki steps out, waving to a few girls across the way as he holds the door open for Calliope.

Their limo pulls away as girls start to surround them. Callie starts pulling away from Tamaki, where it's calmer and quieter. He grabs her elbow though, and shouts over the din, "_At least think about it, please!_"

Callie nods at him, pulling her elbow free and squeezes out of the crowd.

The hallways are always emptier in the mornings then in the afternoons, but there's always one hallway that is consistently empty when Callie walks through. Conveniently, it also has a niche in the wall next to the window, set back far enough to avoid visibility from the courtyard it overlooks, but open to the hallway. She spends most of her time here, when she's not in the kitchen of the Host Club or in class.

Everybody in the Host Club splits off in the mornings; the twins and Haruhi-san hang out in their classroom, Hani-senpai and Mori-senpai have kendo training before school on weekdays and in the afternoons on weekends, and Kyouya-senpai and Tamaki wait in the front for the bell to ring. Calliope is usually left on her own, but this she doesn't mind. There's a difference between being ignored and being left alone.

Being ignored is when she passes through the hallways with nobody calling out for her to wait up, with people pushing past her like she's nothing more than an inconvenient pole in the middle of the hall. Which she prefers, if her only other option is to only be friends with these people because of her Father's accomplishment.

Being left alone is when she goes up to her little sitting area to read and finds Kyouya-senpai there, tapping away on a laptop perched in his lap. He doesn't look up at her, only nods when she rounds the corner. Callie hesitates for a full minute, weighing her options.

She doesn't have to sit up here with him - he shows no signs of moving - and there's always the Music Room or their classroom. But then she runs the risk of looking rude and like she can't stand sitting in the vicinity of him.

Or she can sit up here with him until the bell rings, where he probably won't bother her and will certainly scare anybody off who might come into the hallway.

All this time, Kyouya-senpai has been sitting there silently, politely ignoring how she hasn't moved from her lock-kneed position at the corner.

He's not a bad companion - there are certainly worse people to try to read a book around, like Tamaki. He doesn't try to ask her what she's reading or anything, and, likewise, Callie doesn't ask what he's writing, or why he suddenly decided to hang out up here with her.

When the bell rings, he stands and waits for her to mark her place in her book before he begins to walk back to their classroom.

"You know, Calliope-San," He says casually as they join the throng of students flooding the hallway. "'Senpai' is usually reserved for upperclassmen who are much older than you, or in a higher position than you, as a sign of respect and an indication that you learn from them and their example. You should refer to everyone in our class as 'san' or 'Chan' or 'kun', depending on your relationship with them."

Calliope's ears burn, even with the body heat of everybody in the hallway making the air suffocating.

"Thanks." She mutters, tilting her head down so her hair falls in front of her face. Kyouya-san hums as he trails next to her.

"I didn't think Tamaki had explained it well enough, seeing as you refer to me as 'senpai'." Callie nods her head, wishing he'd stop talking about it. She was wrong, she gets it. _Please stop._

They reach their classroom, and almost immediately Kyouya-san sweeps off to sit in front of Tamaki, darting between the girls with a practiced ease. It seemed like every move he made is calculated, with possibilities and probabilities mapped out like points on a graph.

Callie slides into her seat by Tamaki, pulling her book out again, but she doesn't start reading it yet.

"So, Tamaki, I heard the Hosts are going to be gone tomorrow." One girl pouts, rubbing a finger on his shoulder. "Can't you take me with you?"

Tamaki laughs, "I'm sorry, my dear. But we can't take any of you! It's a day solely for the Hosts to focus and hone their skills so we can better please you, dear."

Another girl picks up where he left off. "But we'll miss you, Tamaki." This girl rolls her fingertips over his ear, her voice dropping seductively. Tamaki flinches back from the touch, and Callie wonders at the boldness of this girl.

Tamaki cracks his knuckles anxiously, but grins up at the girls. "We'll miss you too, my dear, I assure you. We will be back next week."

The girls whine as a collective group, dissipating when the teacher walks into the room. Tamaki rubs his hand over his ear, hard, like he's trying to erase the girls' touches.

He catches the look she gives him and rolls his eyes. "_Don't give me that look, Callie_."

"_Don't give me that look, Tamaki_." She mocks him in a high pitched tone. "_Why do you let them touch you if you don't like it? They don't pay you for you to let them touch you. You're not a doll_."

"_We can't lose customers, Callie. And they're not hurting anyone_."

Callie rolls her eyes, but lets it drop. Tamaki sighs and knocks the desk gently with his fist, rubbing the shell of his ear again.

* * *

The trip begins at five in the morning Friday morning with Tamaki shaking her awake. Callie groans as he shakes her shoulders, already wide awake and talking excitedly about the trip. He babbles circles around her, spinning her round and round until she's dizzy and all she hears is the rich tones of his voice.

He leaves her to get ready when he deems her awake enough, still babbling over his shoulder and down the hall. Callie slides out of bed and stumbles through washing her face and brushing her teeth - class doesn't usually start until 8 o'clock, and the earliest she got up was six. But today they'd be _leaving_ for the spa by six. And Callie is not a morning person.

Tamaki, unfortunately, is. He sweeps in as she's packing her bag, already ready and dressed for the pool.

"The drive is several hours away, three at the most." Tamaki warns her, browsing her bookshelf. "You can sleep if you want, the limo is big enough." He's talking too loud for 5:30 in the morning.

"Fine." She says irately, glaring at him when he starts to hum loudly in an attempt to cheer her up. "Will you shut up?"

Tamaki glares back and her and makes sure to slam the door when he leaves.

Hikaru-san and Kaoru-san come to pick them up twenty minutes later, acting much like Tamaki - wide awake and loudly excited. Hani-senpai, when they pick him and Mori-senpai up, is the same, but Mori-senpai is quiet, per usual. Kyouya-san is grumpy and throws Tamaki a disgruntled look when he starts talking about the resort again.

Haruhi-san is the last person they pick up, and he is caught off guard when Tamaki explains where they're going. As he's dragged roughly into the limo by the twins - who settle him between them - Hani-senpai claps happily and says, "Now we can go! Since Haru-chan's here!"

Tamaki leans forward in his seat, closer to where Haruhi-san is nestled between the twins, and talks directly to him. "Are you excited, Haruhi?"

Haruhi-san wastes no time or emotion when he says dryly, "I'd be more excited to spend the day in a solitary confinement room than do this, senpai."

Tamaki falls back against the seat, heartbroken. Haruhi-san rolls his eyes affectionately at him, smiling as he does so. Callie smiles back, even as Tamaki starts to whine about Haruhi being so cruel to him. Even though he teases Tamaki so effortlessly, Callie can tell he's truly irritated, so she tentatively nudges his ankle in reassurance. He sighs and smiles at her, his chin softening with it and making his cheeks go round and pink.

Everybody settles down after a bit; Haruhi-san pulls out a book, and the twins start a game together on their phones. Kyouya-sa leans back against the seat with his eyes shut, and Hani-senpai leans against Mori-senpai. Tamaki pulls out a book as well, glancing up hopefully at Haruhi-chan to see if he noticed, before settling back against Callie, letting her lean against him. She tucks her feet up underneath her, curling into a ball against Tamaki's side.

The rest of the ride is - thankfully - silent.

* * *

Takashi isn't lying when he says the sun ignores the rest of them, favoring the Souh twins instead.

He can see from the way Haruhi's eyes have caught on Tamaki that she, at least, sees it too.

In just their swimsuits, they both seem more delicate than usual. They share the same slight build, for obvious reasons with obvious differences. But their narrow shoulders and their delicate fingers and even the freckles that are spattered over the shoulders and backs and stomachs are nearly the same. Calliope's scar is dark and obvious against her skin, extending from her collarbone to the middle of her chest. The sun heaps affection on them, painting them in warm shades of yellow and orange.

Both Calliope and Tamaki are mesmerizing to watch, shining and gleaming like gold glitter in the sunlight.

Kyouya stays safely under an umbrella, shadows lingering in his hair and dripping down his back like sweat. Mitskuni is safely by his side, and Tamaki, Hikaru and Kaoru run around slipping and sliding on the concrete.

Calliope is sitting on the edge of the pool with Haruhi, both dipping their feet in, though Callie is lying down with an arm over her eyes.

"Takashi, let's go swimming!" Mitskuni cheers, dropping Usa-chan on the chair and pulling him forward. Takashi allows himself to be dragged forwards and pushed into the water. Mitskuni jumps in after him, splashing the two girls. Callie flinches as the water beads on her stomach, but Haruhi laughs and kicks a bit of water back at them.

"Haru-chan, Callie-chan, you two should come in! The water is really nice!"

Calliope sits up as Haruhi calls back that she's perfectly comfortable right here, thank you. She smiles at Mitskuni and shakes her head, making her hair fly in golden streams around her face. She even has a few freckles on her nose, he notices.

Mitskuni pulls on his hand to gain his attention again. Takashi picks him up and throws him farther into the pool, and he pops back up laughing. Haruhi and Callie laugh when he leaps up on Takashi's back and pulls him down under.

Tamaki and the twins start a water gun fight, and after they accidentally spray the back of Haruhi's sweatshirt, they make sure to stay well away from Calliope and Haruhi both. Kyouya is happy to stay far away from the water and take notes.

The water around Haruhi and Calliope is slowly turning red with their amusement, and the shadows they cast are dark purple. Haruhi seems to have gotten over her resentment at losing a day of study, and now she's like a cat basking in the sunlight.

The sun rises steadily as the afternoon passes, casting darker and darker shades of purple and blue into the trees and into their hair. Shadows melt from Calliope and Tamaki like ice cream in the sun, slithering instead to favor Kyouya or Haruhi, who has long since retreated from the blazing sun.

"Isn't this _so_ relaxing?" Tamaki sighs from his lounge chair, running his fingers through his silky blonde hair. "It's truly a holiday for handsome, hardworking soldiers."

Calliope shakes her head and laughs at Tamaki, stretching languidly. Mitskuni joins in from where he sits next to her, as close as he can get without her backing away. Tamaki ignores the two of them, choosing to throw an arm over his eyes.

"Don't you feel relaxed, Haruhi?" Tamaki asks her. It's not too far of a stretch to call his voice a purr.

Haruhi has her legs stretched out into the sunlight, but the rest of her is safely within the shadow of the umbrella. "Actually, senpai, I'd be much more relaxed if I was at school studying."

Tamaki makes a noise of disappointment and declares them all a lost cause.

Hikaru and Kaoru play a game of volleyball in the shallower section of the pool, with red smeared across their shoulders and foreheads.

"Haru-chan, Haru-chan! Let's share an ice cream? Or how about some cake? And maybe also a mango smoothie!" Mitskuni nearly crawls into Haruhi's lap with excitement. She laughs and pats his head.

"Sure." She agrees, fondness leaking into the already sun-warmed tone of her voice. "I'd love to share a mango smoothie with you."

"Okay!" Mitskuni giggles, climbing off her and running to Takashi; it's an automatic response to hold out his arm for him to grab onto, and he swings up to his shoulders effortlessly.

"Hey, Haruhi!" One of the twins calls from behind. They swim closer, Hikaru still clinging to the beach ball. "Come check out the waterslide with us!"

Haruhi shakes her head. "No thanks! Maybe later!"

Kaoru frowns and pulls himself out of the pool to sit on the edge. "What's with the sweatshirt? Aren't you hot?"

Haruhi chuckles nervously and glances at Callie, who lays with her eyes closed a few feet away. "No, I'm not. I just don't want to be walking around half-naked right now, is all."

Hikaru rolls his eyes. "So, you're not going to swim? You do swim, don't you?"

Haruhi ruffles in indignation. "I can swim as well as anybody else here!"

Kaoru shakes his head, sending yellow stained water droplets spattering over everything. They hit Calliope's stomach and mix with the orange of the sun like watercolor paints. She sits up, shaking out her hair and sending pink spattering to the ground. "So why don't you?"

She sighs and leans back in her chair, pushing her hair out of her dark eyes. "Water parks aren't my thing. Besides, if you want to play in water, a plastic pool is way cheaper."

Mitskuni pulls him backwards into the water, making them both splash backwards. For a minute all he can see is dark blue streams and white bubbles; then he finds the bottom and stands, pulling Mitskuni up with him, sheding water in splashes of red and blue down around them.

"It's a small, inflatable pool! You've never seen kids playing in them?" Haruhi's saying, seemingly bewildered. Calliope is regarding the conversation with unabashed amusement, grinning widely back and forth between the two parties.

Sitting up, Tamaki whispers harshly, "You idiots! If Haruhi says it's a pool, it's a pool! Don't embarrass her and her commoner ways! She can't help her ignorance!"

"So you want us to lie to her?"

"You idiots know I can hear you right?" Haruhi shouts at them, glaring. They freeze without turning to face her, a wise decision in Takashi's mind. Harumi's glare could cut diamonds.

"Don't worry, Haruhi-san, I know what you're talking about." Callie speaks up for the first time, sitting up and rolling over. "Tamaki's just being an idiot again." Calliope's silhouette is all curves; the curve from her heel to her ankle, the curve of her calf, the slope from her neck to her shoulders to her elbow. She's a continuing, sloping line, starting at her feets and climbing up her calves and thighs to dip at the small of her back and rise again along her spine. Tamaki is straight lines with soft edges and corners.

Haruhi mutters something scathing in a low tone, a tone that's all dark purples and blues and greens, before dragging her chair over to where Callie sunbathes.

The twins start whispering to each other, and Tamaki stands frozen with a blush staining his cheeks. Mitskuni climbs onto his back, and he dives into the waves, fighting against the current with Mitskuni sitting on his back.

* * *

"Hey boss, watch out!" Tamaki turns from where he's watching Mori-senpai and Hani-senpai swim.

"Wha-" One of the twins shoots him in the face with a water gun, grinning maniacally.

"Ha! Got you!" He shouts, turning to high-five his twin in triumph.

The other turns and says, "Come on, boss. Play with us. It'll be me and Hikaru against you! If you get hit in the face you lose!"

Tamaki wipes the water off his face and flicks it at Callie, who makes a small noise of irritation. "Why would I want to partake in such a childish game?" He asks haughtily, like he still doesn't act like a bratty seven-year-old.

The twins look at each other, a gesture Callie recognizes, and suddenly she feels slightly sorry for Tamaki, mostly because of the grins spreading across their faces. They skip over to Haruhi-san, stepping quickly over her.

"Oh Haruhi, I think it's time we got married!" Hikaru-san purrs in Haruhi-san's ear, wrapping an arm around his shoulder.

Kaoru-san sets his chin on top of Haruhi-san's head, glancing at Tamaki through his eyelashes. "We'll honeymoon in Bali, I think." Haruhi-san says nothing, just rolls his eyes.

Calliope watches Tamaki stiffen and clench his fists, then reach for the remaining water gun and pump it vigorously, muttering furiously under his breath. She laughs at him under her breath, smiling affectionately at him.

"Do you really think I'd let you marry Haruhi?" He shouts, and at this point the twins get nervous and step back from Haruhi-san. He hits them both in the chest and runs off, with the twins in close pursuit.

Haruhi-san sighs. "They're all such idiots sometimes. Like I'd ever want to marry one of them." Callie nods in agreement.

"But they're lovable idiots. At least, Tamaki is sometimes. I don't know about the twins yet."

Haruhi-san shrugs. "They're okay sometimes, if they feel like it."

It was weird, the way he was wearing a sweatshirt. The other boys had no problem walking around without any shirts on. Even Kyouya-san was shirtless. But maybe he had a self esteem issue? So she wasn't going to press it.

"Haru-chan, Callie-chan! Look at me!" Hani-senpai calls from the current pool. He waves at them as he swims on his own, kicking fast enough to stay in one place. Mori-senpai hauls himself out, dripping water to the concrete. Callie's eyes catch on the water that gathers in the dip of his collarbone.

"Taking a break, huh?" Haruhi-san smiles up at him, offering his water glass. "Would you like something to drink?"

"Yeah." Mori-senpai says, taking the glass from him. "Thanks."

Callie expects him to move under the shade, but he sits carefully next to her, crossing his legs and leaning against one hand. She watches him with wide eyes.

He meets her gaze cautiously, and her already poor excuse for a heart skips a beat. "Is this okay?" He asks quietly, hesitating to relax. She nods after a second, looking away from him and leaning towards Haruhi-san.

The silence isn't awkward yet, but with everybody else preoccupied - Kyouya-san and Haruhi-san have started up a very boring conversation about the grade expectations for various universities and what the average graduating rate is for each - it's quickly becoming that way. Callie scratches at the bottom on her thighs, drawing patterns with her nails.

"Do you like water parks?" She asks quietly, staring down at her knees. She wishes she had a shirt on, suddenly. Her back feels too exposed.

Mori-senpai sets the glass down and puts his hands in his hair instead. He looks like he's slouching against a wall, but there's nothing behind him. He rides the line between always seeming alert and always ben relaxing. Mori-senpai makes it seem like a natural state. "No." After a moment's pause, he continues, "Mitskuni does, though. So I go."

"Ah."

He looks at her and says, "That's my line," with a completely blank face. She doesn't realize he's teasing her until his lips turn upwards the smallest amount. Not that she was looking at them in the first place.

She smiles about the same amount back, looking past him to Tamaki and the twins, in time to see Tamaki slip on a puddle of water and slide until he collides with a Tiki Statue. She scrambles to her feet, using one of Mori-senpai's knees to push herself up without thinking.

"_Tamaki!_" There's a streak of blood on the concrete that makes her stomach turn, but when he sits up, she sees it's only a scrape on his elbow and shoulder, nothing drastic. "Are you okay? What happened? Are you alright?" She kneels besides him, cradling his arm in her hands.

"I'm fine, Callie, it's just a bit of blood . . . " Tamaki trails off in the middle of his sentence, eyes wide and locked on something over her shoulder.

"Mitskuni!" It's a bellow, one that startles the birds out of the trees and makes her jump. Mori-senpai's glass shatters into a million pieces onto the ground, each reflecting a bright bit of sun. Haruhi-san's chair flips backwards as he stands and runs towards the current pool with Mori-senpai, towards the tidal wave that is bearing down on Hani-senpai with frightening speed.

She and Tamaki stand in the same moment, and Mori-senpai slips and crashes to the ground, sliding much in the same way Tamaki just did.

The wave crashes, sweeping Hani-senpai up and under the water, throwing off his pink inner tube. Mori-senpai watches, helpless, as his cousin is dragged into the drainage pipe. Then there's no water left in the pool, as if there had never been any water in there in the first place.

* * *

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	6. Chapter 6

Normal text - Japanese

_Italic text - French_

* * *

The bottom of the river is dry, like there was never any water in it at all. He doesn't understand how the water could've drained so quickly, but pushes that to the back of his mind. Mitskuni is gone, sucked into a drain and dropped off in the middle of a jungle. The drain _looks_ big enough, where he probably didn't hit the sides as he was sucked in, but there's no telling if it gets narrower underground or not. But Mitskuni is tiny - he might be fine, but it's the _might be_ that makes him lightheaded.

Takashi remains glaring at the empty pool until Haruhi gently pulls on his elbow. She can't move him on her own unless he participates.

He's not participating.

"Come on, Mori-senpai. You can't keep glaring at the pool, it's not going to help anything." She waits a few moments for him to respond. When he doesn't, she slides her hand into his limp one and squeezes it gently. "Kyouya-senpai is making a plan. Come on, you'll want to hear it." Her hand is warm and grounding and he already feels a little better knowing that she will help.

He lets her pull him back to the table where the others have gathered around a map. He stares down at it, at Kyouya's pen mapping out the 'wild' portions of the faux jungle.

"Here's where the water from the current river empties out. It's about a five kilometer distance from here to the basin, and it cuts through a lot of undeveloped area." Kyouya glances up at him, registers the determination on his face. "But it's doable. I'll also contact my father's police force for help."

Tamaki leans over the map and asks a question. Calliope leans over it as well, studying it intensely. Wet snakes of brilliant yellow hair slither over Tamaki's shoulders and over the edge of the table.

Takashi sighs harshly out his nose and turns away from them, crossing his arms. The trees ahead of him are hazy green and brown, casting a dark shadow onto the concrete and making him feel cold.

"Let's go." He spits, striding into the trees. His words are bright, fuck you red and orange, spinning and whirling in front of his eyes and against the muted colors of the trees.

"Mori-senpai! Wait up!" Tamaki shouts as he disappears further behind him.

"Mori-senpai!" It's Haruhi chasing after him, and she darts in front of him and forces him to stop, a mouse in front of an elephant. "You can't just run off like that! You can't help Hani-senpai if we get lost."

Takashi glares at her. "I need to _find_ him." He tells her firmly, though he sees the point she's trying to make. It wouldn't help anybody if they all got lost.

"I know you're worried. We all are, Mori-senpai." She says gently, trying to reassure him. "Hani-senpai can take care of himself until we find him. You know that better than I do. And you probably know best what he's going to do, how he's going to act. Just calm down, okay? We'll find him."

He scrubs at his eyes, pressing hard enough to see patterns flash before his eyes. "Fine." One white word, and he's calmer now.

Hikaru and Kaoru bypass him to walk up with Haruhi, linking together like they're in the hallways at school. Kyouya starts to dictate their path, firmly ignoring Tamaki's occasional outbursts of amazement.

"Wow, this place is exactly like a real jungle!" He says excitedly, and Takashi can almost _feel_ his grin burning into his back like a spotlight.

Hikaru turns around. "Do you think all the animals we hear are real too?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure. My family does always try for authenticity at all costs, though."

Haruhi's eye roll rocks the ground. "Fantastic."

He can hear Calliope and Tamaki muttering in French to each other behind him, with Tamaki's voice significantly higher pitched than normal. Calliope's responses are low and irritated and eventually she snaps something, her tone harsh and charcoal gray and Takashi feels like there's a steel wall between her and the others now. Tamaki falls silent.

The sky darkens suddenly, and Takashi only notices because his shadow disappears.

"It's almost time for our daily rainfall." Kyouya announces grumpily, already taking off his watch and stowing it into his pocket.

"You guys have a rain schedule?"

"So why didn't you tell us before? Unless you didn't know." Hikaru says smugly, with satisfied green radiating off him in waves. Kyouya's glare splits the air in half and makes Hikaru shift uncomfortably, shivering.

Tamaki interjects enthusiastically, stepping forward and blocking Kyouya's view. "Look! A bungalow! What a perfect way to hide from this depressing drizzle." He makes a run towards it as rain starts to fall in dime-sized droplets, beating the rest of them there. "How quaint! What a lovely surprise in this dense, dark jungle!"

Calliope sits on the bench that lines the wall and pulls Tamaki down with her. "You can calm down." She tells him quietly. "Kyouya's not glaring anymore."

Takashi turns away from them and leans on the railing.

It's Haruhi who breaks the silence, addressing him when she speaks. "You and Hani-senpai seem really close. Are you guys childhood friends or something?"

He turns to face her, even as Hikaru and Kaoru speak up.

"You mean you don't know?"

"They're cousins, Haruhi!"

She actually sits down in shock, next to Calliope. "How am I supposed to know that? They look nothing alike!" Shock drips blank-page white into the words that he sees hovering around her head like moths, and even though he's less than amused at the moment, he still ends up smiling at her.

Kyouya clears his throat and leans again the railing, crossing his arms and dripping rain onto the wood. "The Morinozukas served the Haninozukas for centuries, until about two generations ago, when they became related by marriage. Now it's a thing of the past."

"Mori-senpai's always looked out for Hani-senpai though, making a point to accompany him." Hikaru interjects.

Tamaki stands up, passion glinting in his eyes. "The blood of his ancestors flows through his veins like a raging river! Such a beautiful story!" He sighs, and Calliope laughs under her breath. Takashi turns back out to stare into the trees. The twins join in Tamaki's dramatic retelling, and he feels Haruhi's 4.8 eyeroll.

"Knock it off you guys. Mori-senpai doesn't need this right now, and you're being dramatic." Haruhi snaps, glaring at the twins.

"Oh, he doesn't mind, Haruhi!"

"Yeah, don't worry!"

"I mean it. _Knock it off._" She growls, and the twins roll their eyes. They don't have the same _rock-the-ground_ power Haruhi has.

Tamaki rallies under Haruhi's brutal glare. "Yeah you two. Knock it off. Why do you always have to be so childish and rude?" This, of course, sets off a whole new chain reaction of bickering that fills the air, expanding and making everything seem bleaker. They're shouting circles around him and he's dizzy. The treeline is a blur and the clearest thing is his white knuckles clenched around the railing.

He sits on the steps and puts his head between his knees. Calliope sits next to him, distancing herself and pulling her shirt tighter against her shoulders. He keeps forgetting she's there in the background. Mitskuni has taken precedence, and she's not in the front of his mind. And she's not trying outright to comfort him, to find a solution, and he doesn't register her presence like he does the others. Her silence makes him nervous, like it always does. But he can feel her keeping her distance, trying not to pressure him or push him.

She's quiet for a few moments before surprisingly, she puts a hand on his shoulder. It helps ground him against the spinning of the sky. Her hands are icy and small against his shoulder, but it's comforting.

"Are you okay?" she asks him hesitantly, pulling her legs a little closer and retracting her hand. "I'm sorry, they're not helping much, are they?" He stares at the wood grains under his feet and doesn't answer. She doesn't push, doesn't pry. Just sits there quietly with her back pressed against the wood beam, staring down at her small, cold fingers. The bickering has gotten louder, but it's not sending him spinning in circles anymore.

Takashi taps the wood to get her attention. "Thank you." He whispers, but Calliope shakes her head in denial, water dripping off her hair in bright shades of blue.

"I didn't do anything." She tells her knees. And it's technically true, she didn't do anything, but it made him feel like he wasn't alone.

He shrugs, and feels Haruhi smirking at them.

There's a sudden flurry of movement behind them, a crinkling of paper, and then Kyouya is announcing loudly over the petty arguing, "We need to figure out which way he's gone." Tamaki shuts up immediately and flounces off to the map Kyouya's laid out on the floor. They all crowd around it again, but this time Takashi only takes a quick glance to find the most direct route from here to the basin.

While everyone is still huddled around the map, creating puddles over undeveloped areas, he slips past Calliope still sitting on the stairs. He wants to ruffle her hair - which is what he'd do for anybody else - but thinks better of it, so his hand makes an awkward twitch as he passes.

Takashi's already shoving ferns aside before he hears somebody clomping after him, and again, it turns out to be Haruhi.

"Mori-senpai, you're going the wrong way! We should just wait here for the police to finish doing a sweep of the area!" She shouts at him, struggling to follow through the thick bushes.

He barely glances behind him, only enough to notice she's glowing red with irritation. "No. He's this way."

She sighs in frustration and he can hear her grinding her teeth from here. "Then I'm coming with you! It's too dangerous to go alone." She snaps, stomping after him. He tries his best to help her through the foliage, pushing aside leaves and sweeping bugs out of her way.

Haruhi slips and nearly lands in pool of unidentifiable sludge, and only Takashi catching the hood of her jacket stops her from falling in. She groans in frustration and jerks herself out of his grasp, hot red pooling in her eyes.

"Haruhi." He sighs, leaning down to pick her up. She's lightweight, and he can easily carry her in one arm. Her blush burns against his skin, but she doesn't apologize or shift or make things harder for him, which he appreciates.

Takashi hears the helicopter long before it occurs to him that they're looking for Mitskuni, too and he hears the footsteps long before he realizes they're headed for them.

And then in a blur of motion that crystal clear to him, men are rappelling down and bursting out from bushes, yelling things into intercoms and pointing guns at them. There's not an inch of open skin on them, but he's willing to bet there's red stained into their fingertips.

He pushes Haruhi's head against his collarbone, covering the back of her head and shielding her as best he can without putting her down. There are more men behind him. Underneath the heavy breathing he hears from Haruhi and the beating, pulsing notes from the helicopter hovering above them, his blood is rushing in his ears.

"Put the boy down! We will remove him with force if you refuse!" One of them shouts through their mask. Takashi holds her tighter against him, because there's no way in hell he's putting her down. She's terrified and her fingers are shaking and she's leaking dark blue from her hands and he feels her heartbeat crashing against his chest.

"No." He tells them calmly, making sure not to make any sudden moves.

Haruhi squeaks out from his where her mouth is pressed against his collarbone, "Hold on a second - "

What's she's trying to explain is cut off as a dark blur in his peripheral vision takes her arm and yanks her backwards. She screams and jerks against the gloved hand on her elbow, and then the man is flying backwards and Takashi isn't surprised if he has a concussion now. He had acted on instinct, lashing out at him with his full strength. Haruhi curls closer into his chest and he feels so guilty - he shouldn't have let her follow him. He shouldn't have left the others at all.

"Prepare to fire warning shots!" And now it's _his_ heart leaping into his throat, pulling Haruhi even closer to him - not that that's possible at this point - because warning shots equal losing a finger.

* * *

"Wait, where's Mori and Haruhi?" Kyouya-san asks when he looks up, immediately looking at her. Callie's confused for a second - they didn't see them leave?

Tamaki's head pops up, and he looks extremely alarmed. "What? Where's Haruhi?" He glances at her immediately, looking as confused as she is. The twins' heads pop up, looking expectantly at her.

She stutters under their heavy gazes. "T-they left. A while ago?" She poses it as a question, like maybe it'd sound better to them. But they must be more unobservant than she thought if they didn't notice Haruhi-san yelling at Mori-senpai at the edge of the treeline.

Kyouya-san is immediately on his feet, whipping out his phone and and asking her, "Which way did they go, Calliope-san?"

She points at where she thinks they went - the entire jungle looks the same to her, a mess of dark green and brown and consuming shadows.

"Why didn't you say something as soon as they left, Callie? They could be hurt!" Tamaki snaps at her, face red and fists clenched.

Callie stares coolly at him. "I thought you already knew, Tamaki."

He runs his hands through his hair, pulling at the strands in front. "How could we possibly know? _We were actually trying to do something. Unlike you._" She stands on the stairs, and even then Tamaki manages to make her feel small even though for once its him losing control and not her.

"_I don't know how you could've missed the seven foot tall giant and your crush just disappearing!_"

"Shut up!" Tamaki turns even redder and he's yelling now. "_Just shut **up! **You don't know anything!_" She flinches back from his screaming, and Tamaki realizes that everybody's staring and he stops momentarily.

Callie dimly hears Kyouya-san say, "What do you mean they're locked on him and a suspicious person?"

And then, horrifyingly, there's a gunshot that echoes through the trees, that drowns out Kyouya-san's phone call and their argument. Everybody goes white, and Callie gets dizzy in the two seconds in takes for the blood to drain from her face.

Then the twins are rushing down the stairs, taking them two at a time, and Kyouya-san snaps into the phone, "Tell them to _hold their fire!_ _Do not shoot!_" and it almost sounds like panic in his voice and Tamaki runs past her, not sparing her a second glance, but shouts over his shoulder for her to stay there.

_Don't worry_, she thinks. Screaming and yelling has reached her ears and everything seems too tense and nerve-wracking. Whatever's happening is being handled, and she doesn't need to be there.

Callie sits down on the steps again and pulls the button up she'd worn today tighter across her shoulders. The temperature had dropped with the rain, and she's still wet, both from the pool and the rain.

Mori-senpai, she could tell, was worried about Hani-senpai. He wasn't careful and quiet like he normally is. He's heavy handed and had less regard for the others than normal. It worries her, how scared he was. Because surely, if Mori-senpai is so worried, then something is wrong.

There's no way to keep track of the time - she hadn't even _thought_ to grab her phone before running off to follow Mori-senpai and Haruhi-san - but the yelling stops after a short amount of time, no more than five minutes. But even after that, the minutes continue to tick by, until ten minutes pass and she hasn't heard a peep from the trees in the direction Tamaki ran into. She stands at the edge of the treeline, trying to peer into the thick shadows, shouting their names until she's scared all the birds away, and still there's no answer. Another ten minutes pass.

It starts as a thought in the back of her head - _maybe they've forgotten me_ \- but its so ridiculous she's jams it back down into the back of her mind with all the other dumb thoughts she has. But it still sends ice into her throat and a headache starts building up behind her eyes.

There's no way Haruhi-san would've forgotten her. There's no way _Tamaki_ would've forgotten that she's here. He knows her worst fear is being forgotten, that every minute of everyday her anxiety is telling her everybody will forget her and leave her and there's nothing she can do about it. He wouldn't do it.

There's no way, you don't just _forget_ an entire person waiting for you.

So Callie sits there, shivering on the stairs until that wriggling, annoying though pops up again, and this time around, it doesn't seem so silly.

* * *

It must've been the relief of getting everybody back. It has to have been that. There's no other way.

Actual, real guns had been aimed at Mori. At Haruhi. And God, he'd never been so scared in his life, not even when Callie was first hospitalized, because at least she was safe and not in any immediate danger. Tamaki had wanted to scream at the police force, _ask them what the hell they thought they were doing_, but then Hani had run out of the the bushes and tackled two of them in one go - and it had been kind of crazy from there.

Getting everybody to calm down, making sure the men Mori and Hani had attacked were still alive, making sure Haruhi was okay - she was and apparently (according to her) she was in more danger of being strangled by him than shot. It was one thing after another, rapid fire fast, and he was fully distracted and had bigger things to worry about.

It wasn't even until they were walking back that he started to feel weird. Like he'd left something behind. He checked to make sure he had his shoes and his phone, and even then he still felt strange.

They were talking about the possibility of going to the beach next when they walked back into the pavilion. Haruhi was saying that she'd like to go to the beach and the twins were agreeing. And then he'd walked over to his bag to get the dry clothes - and Callie's bag was right next to his. He stopped and stared at it, trying to remember something that seemed important.

"Hey boss?"

"Are you okay?"

He doesn't answer them, still trying to remember why Callie's bag was bothering him. "Yeah, I just . . . I think forgot something."

Hikaru and Kaoru shrug and cock their heads. "Like what?"

Tamaki's forehead creased in concentration.

Haruhi paused in front of him, looking between him and Callie's bag. "Where's Callie-san?"

And then it clicks in his head and he remembers the panic in his stomach and shouting at Callie, telling her to stay there at the bungalow -

"_Fuck!_" He shouts, so suddenly that Haruhi takes a hasty step back and the twins flinch so bad they bump heads. "_I forgot Callie oh my god I forgot her._" He's slipped into French and they can't understand but they hear Callie's name and he can see the realization dawning on them to, even as he turns and runs back the way they came.

Theres a explosion of yelling from behind him, mostly directed _at_ him, but he ignores it until he hears from Kyouya, "You're heading the wrong way, idiot." He says scathingly, shoving his notebook into his bag and pulling on his shoes. "We want to go this way." He pushes past him, and Haruhi catches up, fury scrawled in harsh lines across her face.

"How the hell could you forget Callie-san?" She asks, disgusted. "You're even more of an idiot than I thought. Do you have any idea of what she must be feeling now?"

He flushes, half angry and half ashamed, because he does, he knows it's her worst fear. "I didn't mean to." He sulks, jogging forward to walk up with Kyouya. The others stay in the pavilion.

It takes twenty more minutes to reach the bungalow.

Tamaki sees her immediately, sitting on the stairs. Callie's sitting with her head between her knees, looking like a crumpled ball of paper, and the guilt starts to eat at him.

She must hear him approaching, because she sits up and stares at him. At first her face is completely, curiously blank; then she's furious in a split second and she stands and Tamaki braces himself -

But all she does is walk past him without saying a single thing, bypassing Kyouya and walking back the way they came.

The way back seems to be an even longer walk, and the awkwardest silence he's ever encountered. He's to blame for it, for sure, and Callie is furious. Her hands are shaking and her jaw is clenched so tightly he'll be surprised if she ever opens her mouth again. The screaming match they're sure to have isn't suitable for anybody else to hear, even if they talk in French, so he doesn't try to apologize yet. She'll ignore him anyways, until she explodes.

"Callie-chan!" Hani-senpai throws himself at her as soon as they walk out of the shadows of the trees. He wraps her tightly in his arms, and she stiffens obviously in discomfort. "I'm back! Takashi and Haru-chan came to rescue me!"

Callie plasters a smile onto her face, and says politely, "I'm glad you're okay, Hani-senpai. We were all very worried." Tamaki's stomach tightens at her plastic tone. The others obviously hear it too, and the twins share looks of apprehension. Mori stares steadily at her, but she looks past them all and moves to get her clothes.

Haruhi approaches her, trying to meet her eyes. "I'm so sorry we didn't come to get you. I thought that you had already come back her to wait for us. I can't imagine what it must of felt like and I'm so sorry."

Tamaki turns away from them, clenching his hands into fists. It's not Haruhi's fault, she had a goddamn _machine gun_ pointed at her. She had bigger things to worry about. If anything, it was his fault. He feels sick to his stomach, and just by looking around he can tell the others do too. Hani's eyes are filled with tears and Mori's watching her carefully, with actual concern showing on his face. Kyouya looks irritated - but that's mostly directed at him.

Callie doesn't even look at Haruhi as she pulls on her shorts and a clean T-shirt. She doesn't seem like she's going to say anything at all until Haruhi grabs one of her hands as she turns to walk towards the parking lot. Callie flinches back so violently that Haruhi drops her hand and steps back. Her hands have started trembling again.

She's forced a smile onto her face again and she looks at Haruhi's feet as she tells her, "It's okay. I understand." She struggles for a second, then says stiffly to them all, "It was a mistake." And with that, she turns and walks off to the parking lot, moving too fast to be entirely casual.

Tamaki breaks the silence. "She'll get over it. She said she understood it was a mistake." His words fall flat in their effort to comfort them. Haruhi whips around, glaring ferociously at him.

"That is _not_ what she meant, Tamaki and you_ know_ it." She shouts at him, her face screwed up in disgust and anger. Haruhi snatches her bag from the chair and stomps after Callie, and the twins follow her in obvious discomfort - they don't know Callie well enough to stand up for her, to fight with Tamaki for her, but they know he's in the wrong. And for some reason seeing his friends furious on her behalf - it makes him sick and makes the guilt well up fresh again.

Tamaki rubs at his eyes and follows the others to the limo.

* * *

They're the first ones to be dropped off, even before Kyouya or the twins, who are both closer than they are. Tamaki thinks Kyouya must have asked his driver to do this, since there's no hesitation as he turns down the winding driveway that leads to the second Souh mansion.

They pull to a stop at the crest of the driveway, and before the car is even put into park Callie is scrambling out of the car so fast the door slams shut before anybody can even say goodbye to her.

"She'll get over it." Tamaki says dismissively, pretending like guilt isn't weighing heavy down on his shoulders. Haruhi shoots him a dirty look and the others quickly say their goodbyes. Callie is already slamming the double doors when Tamaki climbs out of the limo.

The maids are whispering furiously when he walks into the entrance hall, and Callie is nowhere in sight. They stop when he comes in and hurriedly resume their tasks, faces flushed.

Shima walks down the stairs that leads up to the many bedrooms on the second floor, and Tamaki pauses to wait for her at the bottom. She narrows her eyes when she sees him. "Master Tamaki, may I inquire as to why Mistress Calliope ran up the stairs and into her room, crying all the way?"

Tamaki's stomach drops and he starts up the stairs. "Don't worry about it, Shima. I'll take care of it."

She makes a small noise of what sounds like disagreement. "That's what you always say." He ignores her and continues up the stairs, passing his room and continuing to Callie's.

"_Callie? Are you okay?_" He knocks gently on her door. "_Can I come in? I want to talk to you._"

He doesn't expect her to be so close to the door when she shouts, "_Why would I want to talk to **you**?_"

He sighs. "_I'm sorry. There were a lot of things happening, and I thought you would've found your own way back_."

"_You **knew** I didn't know the way back. We all had to use a map to even get to that shitty house in the first place!_"

Tamaki bangs on the door with his fist, and the maids cleaning the windows at the end of the hall swiftly carry everything out of the hallway and shut the door behind them. "_Just let me in, okay?_"

"_No! I don't want to look at you._" He can hear her banging around inside her room, like she's pulling everything off her shelves and letting it topple to the floor. "_Why in hell would I want to talk to you?_" She screams, punctuating it with an especially loud bang.

"_Oh, come on! Don't be ridiculous._" He says derisively, rolling his eyes.

He can hear her stomping across the floor inside, and she slams her fist against the door, jolting him back. "R_idiculous? At least I'm not the asshole who left his sister behind!_"

"_I didn't leave you behind! I told you, I got distracted, and -_ "

"_Jesus just shut up. If you didn't want me hanging out with your friends you could've told me! I fucking asked you and you said it was fine!_"

"_It's not my fault I felt sorry for you! Everybody already does, and it's not my fault you can't make any other friends!_" Tamaki yells through the door even as his stomach drops and Callie doesn't answer, but there's another resoundingly loud thump from inside, like maybe this time its her falling to the ground.

He stands outside her door, staring at the doorknob; he's waiting for her to turn it and punch him or at least to smack him across the face -

But it remains closed. And eventually he goes back to his room and lays on his bed, and the sound of Callie crying and swearing at him leaks through the wall until midnight.

* * *

**You guys can say it. I suck at updating. ****This would've been up Sunday night, but I got sick like at midnight when I was almost done with the chapter and I started throwing up at about 2am, and my dad was throwing up and so was my sister, and my mom was out of town and she started throwing up and it was this huge mess. **

**Thank you to unknownher, wealhtheow1, Malffinka, ValkyriePaintingRoses, and oxsilvertearsxo for favoriting/following!**

**And also thank you to everybody for their kind comments and reviews, it means so much to me!**

**Let me know what you guys think as always!**

**Until next time, minna!**


	7. Chapter 7

She hopes he can hear the swears she's aiming at him through the wall; nasty, frightening, vicious curses ricocheting around her head and exploding out her mouth. Her mother would be horrified (She is too, a little bit).

And God, she hates that she's crying, that tears are dripping off her chin and slipping down her neck, but there is red hot anger curled inside her limbs and curdled in her stomach and pooling in her eyes. So while she hits her mattress and screams to the ceiling at Tamaki until midnight, some of the lava that's burning through her stomach leaks out her eyes.

Callie wears herself out, her voice finally going horse and her arms aching. She pulls the comforter off the bed and her pillows and sheets too and jams herself into the tiny space between the wall and the bed. It feels better to be unable to move.

* * *

When Callie wakes up later, it's no longer anger blistering in her veins, but betrayal simmering in her heart and that's even worse.

She's made a mess of her room. The sheets have been halfway ripped off the bed, the boxes scattered around even worse than they were before. Her phone is also one of the casualties. Callie finds it under a fallen box, the screen shattered beyond repair. She tosses it into the trash; it was just an old flip phone she was using until she could get a better one.

She hears classical music swelling from Tamaki's room, dancing around the room and coming in through her open window, and knows he's trying to drown out any more curses that may come from her.

Callie doesn't want to sit around and continue to let her emotions skyrocket, so instead she starts cutting open her boxes and shoving them into separate areas. Clothes here, knick knacks there, etc. Her furniture is still wrapped in plastic wrap, and she rips that off as well.

She goes methodically through each box; the longer her task takes, the better. It's harder to think when she's doing something.

She has a hard time shoving the dresser to where she wants it - it's as big as she is, and it has to be at least three times as heavy. Her arms are aching when she's finally satisfied. Mori-senpai could probably move all of her boxes with ease, Callie thinks as she shoves her desk into place. Honestly, he could probably carry several of her heaviest boxes and not even strain to carry them.

The knock at her door startles her. The maid enters without a second's pause, but stops short when she sees the mess, her hand slipping from the doorknob to dangle at her side.

"Calliope-sama, what are you doing? We were going to have some of the men from the kitchen move everything later this afternoon." The maid jolts a bit, looking at her with horror. "And you're a mess!"

Callie steps away from her desk, guiltily stepping on the scratches she's left. "I'm sorry?" It comes out like a question, even though she doesn't mean it like one. The maid shakes her head, still staring at her.

"Your grandmother is here to see you. She's requested both your's and Tamaki-sama's presence in the living room." She eyes Callie with hesitation, her mouth screwing up on one side of her face."I would get dressed before you go down, Mistress. She doesn't seem to be in a good mood."

Callie nods quickly at her, and the maid bows out, making a face before she's even turned her back.

She's heard enough about her paternal grandmother from Tamaki and her Papa to know that she isn't really somebody that a person would be friends with for fun. More like she's the person you make friends with because they can do something for you. The cat the mouse befriends to keep from being eaten.

She changes quickly, and makes sure to brush her hair before heading downstairs. The music echoing from Tamaki's room has stopped, but it still winds around her head and in and out of the empty rooms. But silence is the reigning sound downstairs, heavy and oppressive.

It emanates from the living room. Through the crack in the door she can see tea set out on the table and a plate of untouched cookies. Callie takes a minute to straighten her back and push her chin up higher. She smoothes her skirt and brushes her hair back from her face, and puts on a different persona.

She knocks firmly on the door. There's a clink of china, and then a grating voice says, "Come in."

Callie steps in smoothly, leaving the door open behind her. Tamaki has his back to her, sitting stiff as a board on the couch. Her grandmother faces her. She's wearing a rich red kimono, and is staring straight ahead at Tamaki. Her salt-and-pepper hair is parted neatly and pulled back into a severe bun, making the soft folds of her skin seem even more obvious.

When she takes the first step into the room, Grandmother's entire body shifts towards her. Her brown eyes are piercing and almond shaped; they'd be much more beautiful, she thinks, if there was kindness in them instead of cold. Tamaki stands when he hears her enter. When he turns to look at her his face is curiously, frighteningly, blank.

"You must be Calliope." Grandmother says flatly, looking her up and down. "Have a seat." She indicates the couch in front of her, next to Tamaki, but Callie instead sits in the chair to her right, crossing her ankles as she sits.

Silence rings again, with Grandmother looking expectantly at her. "I'm glad to finally meet you, Grandmother. I've heard a lot about you." She says politely, smiling at her.

Grandmother nods shortly. "I'm sure you have." She stands, setting her teacup on the table. Callie and Tamaki automatically stand with her. "As I'm sure you're aware, I'm a very busy woman, so I will make this quick. This Saturday there is a benefit dinner, attended by all the heads of the corporations in Japan. It is an opportunity to make connections and to network, and I expect you both to be there."

She looks deliberately at them both, and Callie can feel Tamaki panicking from across the room. She doesn't blame him, she's anxious too. Grandmother radiates coldness and unpleasantness and she really has no desire to spend her Saturday night being her pawn to control.

Tamaki steps forward delicately and says, "Uh - I'm sorry, but this weekend the Host Club is taking it's beloved guests to the Ootori's beach house for a break from school." Callie freezes, her fingers laying flat against her thigh. Her eyes snap up and try to meet his, but he won't look at her. He knows what he's doing. Anger starts to seep into her fingers again, but her cheeks remain cool.

Grandmother's cold eyes narrow. "Are you quite sure that is happening this weekend, and not the next? After all, the Host Club did just leave on a vacation just yesterday, correct?"

"Ah . . . yes, we did. But this time, it's for our guests, not ourselves." He smiles brilliantly at her. Grandmother doesn't look fooled in the slightest bit. Instead, she looks at Callie, who holds her breath under the intense look she gives her. The tension is tangible - she doesn't want to find out what happens if you lie to her.

"Is this true?" She asks softly, folding her hands in front of her. Callie pauses for a moment - doesn't look at Tamaki, doesn't look away from Grandmother. Doesn't flinch when Grandmother shifts impatiently, when she stares her down.

"Yes." Callie exhales in a rush, still staring into her eyes. She fidgets with her ring behind her back. "He and Kyouya-san have been planning it for a week now." Her jaw clenches in anger, partially at herself, mostly at Tamaki. She can't believe she's covering for him right now.

"You are not a part of this ridiculous club, correct?" Callie shakes her head, and shockingly she sees Tamaki shake his, even though she's not looking at him, even though Grandmother is still glaring at her. She says, "You will be at this benefit dinner, do you understand me? I need at least one of you there, even if it has to be _you_."

Callie's eyes widen as she inhales sharply, and her eyes flick over to Tamaki for a second before she meets Grandmother's cold, brown eyes again. "Y-Yes, Grandmother."

She smiles tightly and nods. "Good. At least one of you can do what you're told." Her eyes glance at Tamaki before she turns to leave. "And get rid of that stutter, it's unbecoming in a young lady like yourself. No doubt your mother never corrected it." Grandmother pauses after she says that, waiting to see if they'll say something in defense of their mother. When neither one of them makes an obvious denial, she smiles cruelly one last time and glides out the door.

They're both statues until they hear the front door slam, and even then Callie's silent for a few seconds more, staring at the teacup she's left behind.

Tamaki breaks it when he turns to her, his eyes going wide. "Callie - "

She falls away from him, her shoulders curling inwards as she backs away. "_No_. I don't want you to talk to me." He reaches out for her, tries to touch her shoulder, tries to apologize again. She smacks his hand away, darts behind the couch to avoid him.

There are no words to express how angry she is at him right now. And he seems to realize it because he backs away a bit, but doesn't leave.

Her chest heaves as she spits out at him, "You're leaving me, alone, with her! You _hate_ her!" Tamaki tries to deny it, but she overrides him. "And you left me alone yesterday. And then you _forgot_ me. And you're going to do it again." And suddenly the fight is drained out of her, the anger still there but she has no energy to scream. "You left me alone yesterday because of your friends. You forgot me yesterday because of your friends. You're using your friends as an excuse to leave me with a bunch of strangers, again! _Do you see the trend?_"

Tamaki looks at her in disbelief. "I didn't abandon you. I told you to stay there because a gun went off. I forgot you didn't know the way back to the cabana because there was an actual gun pointed at my friends! Don't use _them_ to fuel your anger!" He shouts back at her. "I'm sorry I won't be going to the stupid benefit dinner, but you won't be alone. Papa is going to be there. I don't have "

Callie shakes her head, mumbles under her breath. "You don't understand." She tugs at the ends of her hair with anger threatening to leak out her eyes again. Her arms are filled with fury and she could nearly smack with '_are you dumb_' look from his face.

He scoffs, throws his hands into the air. "Okay. Of course I don't. It's my fault, I'm sorry. _Happy now?_"

Perfectly timed, the knock at the door breaks some of the tension. Callie, about to retort, whirls to send the maid out of the room.

But of course, it's Haruhi-san standing there, looking concerned, with the rest of the Host Club gathered behind. "Should we come back later?" He asks quietly, his eyes flicking nervously back and forth between them both, at their obviously tense argument. Kyouya-san has his arms crossed, observing them with curiosity.

Callie flushes and shuffles backwards a few paces, scratching at her arms. "No." Tamaki and her answe at the same time, but he sounds desperate. They glare at each other for a few tense moments. He looks like he's preparing himself for her to say something, but she bites her cheeks hard enough to draw blood to resist the urge.

Hani-senpai steps into the room, hugging his stuffed rabbit closer. "Callie-Chan, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She says angrily, unfolding her arms and rubbing her hands over her skirt again. They all stare at her, waiting for a different answer. Her heart is pounding from the tension and adrenaline left over from Grandmother's visit.

Tamaki sighs into the silence. "Okay. Let's head out!" He claps his hands together and pushes Haruhi-san out of the room. "We're going to be late!"

Haruhi-san turns his head and tries to meet her eyes, but Callie stares at her feet instead.

The twins trail after them, and Kyouya-san is already out the door. Hani-senpai steps forwards again. "Callie-chan . . . are you sure you're okay?"

His gentle brown eyes are wide with concern, but he's never seemed more serious. She swallows hard and nods, still pink with embarrassment and anger. "I'm fine." She repeats, quieter this time.

Mori-Senpai watches as she sits delicately in the chair behind her. Hani-senpai comes up right in front of her, when she's staring at her hands.

"Callie-chan, I'm really sorry about what happened yesterday. Everybody is." Mori-Senpai nods from his position at the door. "We all just want to make sure you know that."

"Yes." She whispers, twisting her ring again. "I was just worried about _you_."

Hani-senpai beams at her and hugs his rabbit tighter. "I can take care of myself, Callie-chan!" Callie nods in agreement, returning his smile. He pats her hand and turns to skip out the door, but Mori-senpai stays behind for a minute, and walks over to stand a little bit in front of her.

Neither one of them says anything for a second, until she looks up at him. When he's sure she's looking at him, he kneels down so they're at eye level, and stays there in when Callie moves back a bit to give herself some space.

"Are you okay?" He asks her quietly, meeting her eyes. She meets them and, after a few shushed seconds, nods. Mori-senpai waits a minute before standing up and smoothing her hair down. "Are you sure?" He checks, tilting his head down to meet her eyes again.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Callie says, standing up as well. Mori-senpai takes a step back and nods, turning to leave. He looks back at the door to wave goodbye, then she's left alone again.

* * *

**yooo **

**i feel like this is kinda crappy? But i can't pinpoint anything so **

**I'll probably edit it later and repost it but i want to at least update it because lizzy actually updated something so now i feel obligated. And as you can probs tell this little arc will continue for a few more chapter. **

**Thank you to everybody who's been favoriting and following and reviewing! It means so ****much!**

**Until next time, minna!**


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